Vanyel rose stiffly from his stool, pivoted, and stalked towards the door.
He hadn't taken more than a few steps, when Jervis' strangled, half-smothered 'wait' stopped him in his tracks.
'Why?' he asked, not turning.
'Because - I - we gotta figger out this thing.' Jervis cleared his throat. 'All of us.'
Vanyel turned back, still angry, but suppressing it. 'Very well. If we're going to figure this mess out, you'll have to take my word as being at least as good as the boy's.'
Jervis plainly didn't like that, but only protested, 'How in hell can we take two stories that're that different?'
'Look at the one that fits the symptoms,' Vanyel's voice was grim, and his face felt tight. 'He's afraid to let women between the ages of eighteen and forty even touch him - assume the story he told you is true - Ylyna alternately beating him and loving him, and then trying to seduce him -'
He wiped his forehead, and his hand came away wet with nervous sweat.
'Gods. Think about how Treesa treats every attractive male, including me. She comes on to every man like a flirt. It's only a game to her, but think how that must have looked to Tashir - the way he'd react. Given my version is true, you could predict he'd do just what he did - panic, and let his Gift act up and frighten her off - just as I was told he did with his mother. Think about how he hides from Withen! And think about the way he clings to you, Jervis! Everything makes sense.'
Jervis faltered. 'Well, yes, but -'
'And everything points straight at Tashir as the unconscious murderer,' Vanyel continued, heartsick.
'Now that I will not believe!' Jervis shouted, surging to his feet. 'That boy is no kind of a killer! Hell, he damn near castrated himself in practice yesterday, pulling a cut when Medren lost his helm!''
'Who else could it be?' Vanyel shouted back, overriding Jervis' protests by sheer volume. 'He had the power, he was at the scene, and he had the motive! There's nobody, nobody, with any kind of a motive except Tashir!''
“No!” Jervis insisted, eyes going black with anger. 'No, I won't accept that! Look how he kept from hurting anybody in Treesa's bower.'
“But crazed with fear, wild with anger, can you speak for that?'
'Even crazed - how could he kill that Karis? He loved that old man, he must have, to trust me so much just because I look like him!'
Vanyel sat heavily back down onto the stool. 'I don't know,' he admitted in a low voice. 'That's only one of the things that's been bothering me. In all of the cases of Gifts gone rogue that I've ever heard of, the rogue never hurts anyone but the ones directly in his way. Everybody was killed in this case, and that doesn't make sense. It might make sense if he panicked completely and thought he was killing witnesses, but he didn't have enough time to reason something like that out, not from all I learned. And from what I know of his personality - no. I can't see him killing in cold blood even to save himself.' He rubbed his pounding temples with his fists. Fits of anger always gave him a headache. 'The first half of the story fits, but the second doesn't. I just can't reconcile the two.'
'There're other questions,' Savil pointed out from her seat on the cot. Vanyel looked at her in surprise; he'd forgotten she was there. 'Lots of other questions. Some of them may tie in, others may not, but the fact is there's too many of them. Lord Vedric's behavior is certainly peculiar. It doesn't in the least match what I've heard of him. Either the man has reformed, or he's up to something. Then there's the puzzle of the Remoerdises, the Linean Royal Family. Why did Deveran insist that only those related to his family serve in the palace? Why is the place built on top of a damned mage-node? Why are the Lineans so completely against mage- craft?'
Vanyel shook his head. 'You think those questions are crucial?'
'Don't you?' She stood, and smoothed down the front of her tunic. 'You know damned well they are, or you wouldn't have brought them up. I tend to agree with Jervis; Tashir is no killer. I agree with you that your tale of how the boy was treated fits his behavior a lot better than the one he told Jervis. And there is something we're missing. Something important. I think we ought to all think about it.'
'What about that tale he's been feeding Jervis?' Vanyel asked.
