“Felix.”
Tilla yawned. “He gave you a gold ring?”
“It was our secret.”
Tilla slid it onto her third finger. She had never worn a gold ring before. She did not expect to wear one again. It was a pity there was no light by which to admire it.
“Do you think I will see him in the next world, cousin? He said he didn’t believe in that sort of thing, but you don’t have to believe in something for it to be true, do you?”
“I suppose not,” said Tilla, who privately thought that if the next world was reserved for people with honor, any soldiers who managed to make it there would be very lonely. “Is the ring the reason Rianorix was jealous of him?” Rianorix could make baskets all day and all night and still have no hope of affording a gold ring.
“No, no, cousin! The ring made everything all right. And then that horrible doctor went mad and… and…”
Tilla reached for Aemilia’s hand and placed the ring on her finger. “I am sorry for you, cousin,” she said. “Truly.”
“I am going to wear it,” announced Aemilia. “I know what everyone thinks. But he gave me a ring with my name on it. I will show them!”
“Tomorrow,” agreed Tilla, snuggling back under the blanket. “Now we must go back to sleep.”
“I will show them all.” Aemilia flung herself back down on the mattress and sniffed.
“Good night, cousin. Sleep well with your beautiful ring.”
“Good night, cousin.”
“Cousin?”
“Yes, cousin?”
“One last thing. Do not wipe your nose on the sheet when I am in the bed.”
49
Ruso stood in Metellus’s very ordinary office in the headquarters building. Clearly this was not the room to which Tilla had been taken for questioning. There was nothing frightening about three folding stools, a table, a cupboard, and the rather fine bronze lampstand that was enabling him to see them all.
“Wine?” offered Metellus, gesturing toward a flagon and a set of three matching glasses. “It’s rather good. I have an arrangement with the people down at the inn.”
Ruso declined.
“Excuse me if I do,” said Metellus, pouring himself a glass. “Aminaean,” he said, holding the glass up to the light. “I wish I could say we were celebrating the return of a missing object, but our searches continue.” The flames of the lamps stretched and swayed in the glass as he lifted it to his lips.
Tilla was right. Something about Metellus really did remind Ruso of a snake. “When I spoke to you earlier-”
Metellus smiled. “You didn’t mention that you’d chased off a gang of natives single-handed this morning. Well done. It’s a pity we can’t make more of a fuss over you, but we don’t want to spread yet another tale to frighten the good folk of Coria.”
“That wasn’t what I wanted to talk about,” said Ruso, who had been so concerned about Tilla earlier that the natives in the back alley had completely slipped his mind. Evidently the victim had decided to report the incident himself.
“This Stag Man business has the locals very overexcited,” explained Metellus. “They’re starting to compete at army baiting, and of course every exploit adds to his reputation. This seems to have been a bunch of amateurs- which doesn’t diminish your achievement, of course. You wouldn’t have known that when you took them on.”
“I want to talk about Tilla.”
“And all over the theft of a hen, apparently. Any excuse.”
Ruso felt he could not let that one pass. He said, “The natives thought they had a grievance.”
Metellus shook his head. “There’s a system for making complaints, Ruso. We have no thefts of hens reported. I checked.”
“About Tilla-”
“How are you getting on with Thessalus?”
“I’m trying to find out what he actually did do that night, but that’s proving a problem. Apparently he was out till dawn on a call, but my man can’t track down where.”
“Really? I wouldn’t worry about it. Just confirm that he’s insane.”
“I’ll keep looking,” said Ruso. This was not the time to argue about who controlled the contents of military medical records. “About Tilla. I brought her to you as a witness for a simple identification, Metellus. We had an agreement that if you had any difficulty with her, you would get ahold of me. I want to know why that didn’t happen.”
“She refused to identify anyone.”
“Then she was telling the truth. I was out in the yard that night as well. It was pitch dark and pelting with rain. I wouldn’t have recognized my own brother.”
Metellus gestured toward the flagon. “Are you quite sure you don’t want a drink?”
“I don’t want a drink; I want an apology. It’s no wonder you have trouble with the natives if this is how they’re treated when they’re offering to help.”
Metellus gave a sigh that sounded almost like regret, sat down and motioned Ruso to one of the other folding stools. He waited until they were both seated before saying, “What has she said to you about Rianorix?”
“I told you. She knows him. She says he’s innocent.”
“I see.”
“You weren’t able to crack him with your questioning, were you?”
“Not this time.”
“Then maybe she’s right. You should be looking for somebody else.”
“Yes, Doctor,” said Metellus, in a tone that reminded Ruso of a medic thanking a patient for some wildly inaccurate attempt at self-diagnosis. “I have thought of that. Which is why my men and I have already spoken to everyone who heard the argument in the bar that night, including the merchant couple and the men from Vindolanda, and confirmed their whereabouts later on.”
“How about Gambax?”
“And Gambax, although it’s hard to imagine why he should want to make a native sacrifice of one of his comrades anyway.”
“I’ve been told Felix was seen with some sort of list of debtors at the bar.”
Metellus frowned. “Really?”
“Audax didn’t mention finding it on the body. If the killer got rid of it, then we should assume it was somebody who owed him money. So it wasn’t Rianorix. Rianorix was asking him for payment.”
Metellus brushed invisible dandruff off his shoulders. “I wasn’t aware that the prefect had given you permission to investigate, Ruso.”
“Perhaps it was nothing to do with the bar. Perhaps the argument happening on the same night was just a coincidence.”
“I suppose Tilla suggested that?”
“No, I just thought of it.”
Metellus savored a sip of wine before replying. “Tell me. How much do you know about this Tilla?”
Ruso frowned. “She’s my housekeeper. She’s been living with me since October.”
“Inside the fort at Deva?”
“She couldn’t do her job outside.”
“And before that? What do you know about her background?”
Ruso explained about the cattle raid, Tilla’s abduction from her burning home into slavery with the Votadini tribe in the north, and her arrival in Deva. The silence with which Metellus listened made him uneasy. Finally he
