Mystery at Shadow Peak (5)

Writers: Estelle
Date Posted: 14th August 2022
Series: Mystery at Shadow Peak

Characters: Jorghan, Alekis
Description: Jorghan makes a discovery in the Holder's office
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 9, day 9 of Turn 10

Jorghan reached the top of the long stair and paused to catch his
breath, mentally cursing the Holder who'd thought to build this tower,
let alone install his office at the top of it. The views were
spectacular on a clear day, out over sharp-peaked mountains and tiny
flashes of light glittering on the river in the valley, but he'd been up
and down enough times in the past few days to doubt whether it was worth
the aching muscles in his calves.

He balanced his latest armful of Records on one arm and knocked at the
door with the other.

"Come in." Alekis looked up, reading the guardsman's expression with a
sympathetic twist of his mouth. "Nothing yet?"

Jorghan shook his head. He'd become more familiar than before with the
workings of a busy mine hold, the records of fluctuating prices for
blackrock and the sales of runnerbeasts, winter stores and hold repairs,
but he'd found nothing untoward. The hold had prospered since the Pass
began, with demand for the products of its mines increasing. There was
some evidence of marks spent on luxuries by Holder Belkas which might be
considered profligate, but that was, after all, his right.

"Well, I'm going down to make some klah." Alekis stood and stretched,
rolling his shoulders. He had been accommodating over access to the
Records, telling Jorghan to look at whatever he liked.

"You don't want me to send for some on my way down?" Jorghan went to the
shelves and started replacing the hides he'd brought back.

"No, I could do with a break. Use my desk, if you like. Save you
dragging those hides back and forth to your room."

"Thanks." He nodded as the Warder left, then slid the last sheaf of
hides back onto the shelf and took a step back, surveying them wearily.
**Now what?** So far, he'd begun with the period leading up to the
explosion at the smithy and the Steward's disappearance, then worked his
way back to the death of the old Holder. It seemed unlikely that he'd
find anything interesting further back than that, but nor did he expect
the answer to lie in the new Warder's records. The man hadn't even been
in the mine hold at the time.

**They weren't stupid enough to leave traces in the Records.** Not when
the harper, or perhaps the Headwoman might ask to examine them. Both of
those two seemed intelligent and honest. Given his suspicions about the
steward, the harper might well have looked already. **Then where?**

Jorghan turned, slowly, surveying the room. Then he began his search,
starting with the desk. He lifted the leather desk blotter and the
inkwell, flicked through the stacked papers. One by one, he removed the
drawers, removing the contents and running his fingertips around their
corners, then feeling into the empty space behind them for hidden
spaces. Next, he moved on to the shelves, pulling out records and
checking for anything concealed behind them. He lifted the tapestries
away from the walls, feeling the reverse for pockets or hidden papers,
and then checked behind the painting of the hold behind the desk.

Frowning, he straightened the painting and stepped back. Where else? His
eye fell on the smooth, gleaming wooden surface of the drinks cabinet.
He doubted Warder Alekis had touched it since his arrival; every time
he'd seen the man, he'd been drinking klah.

He crouched down beside it. Inside, he could see that it was
well-stocked with bottles of liquor, some clear and some deep amber or
ruby-red, all with Vintnercraft stamps. The lower shelf held a set of
finely cut glasses in a variety of shapes and sizes. There was a small
keyhole set into the front of the glass doors. No key, but it shouldn't
be too difficult... Jorghan straightened, went to the desk and found a
slim paper-knife. With a bit of effort and patience, he was able to
slide it through the crack in the doors and wiggle the bolt open.

Careful not to knock any of the glassware, he slid a hand inside, felt
the sides, the base and then the top of the cabinet. There... His
fingers found a slight depression on the smooth wood. When he pushed on
it, there was a soft click, and the underside of the top of the cabinet
tilted down, revealing a concealed space only a finger's width deep -
and inside, a leather folder which slid out into his hand.

Before he could open it to look inside, Jorghan heard footsteps on the
stair. Quietly, he closed the drinks cabinet, replaced the paper-knife
on the desk where he'd found it, and retrieved a stack of hides from the
Record shelves, sliding the hidden folder in among them. By the time the
Warder entered the office carrying a tray with klah and mugs, he was
seated at the desk, poring over a list of production figures from the mine.

"Good news." Alekis set down the tray on a side table and poured a mug
of klah, then handed it to Jorghan along with a rolled-up hide. "There's
a reply to your message."

"Thank you." Jorghan unrolled the hide, his eyes flickering as he
scanned it. "Ah, good. The man I asked for should be here the day after
tomorrow. If you've got some hands to spare, it would help with the search."

"Of course. Anything we can do to throw some light on what happened."
The Warder poured his own klah and breathed lightly on the steaming mug.
"Your man's a tracker, then?"

"Aye, but it's not just him." He stood, gathering the hides casually
into a stack to carry off, as if there was nothing more of interest
among them than on any of his other trips up and down the long spiral
stair to the tower. "He's bringing canines."

***

Back in his room, Jorghan set the hides down on the small table where
he'd been working, and pulled out the folder he'd found. It contained
papers, at first glance not all that different from the hold records
he'd spent the past few days poring over. When he studied them more
closely, though, the differences began to appear. It wasn't unlike his
first investigation, the one that had made his name as a young guard.
This mine hold had prospered since the Pass began, more even than the
public records had told. It wasn't much, but it was there.

**Someone was being paid off.** In among the rows of accounts, for
purchases of grain and fresh fruit and beasts from the lower-lying
holds, crafters' salaries and tithes, he found regular payments with no
explanation but for a small 'S' marked at the left of the page.

**S for...steward? Sogreal?** He frowned. Secrets? Silence?

There were scraps of hide, too, with calculations scribbled on them.
After a bit of head-scratching, Jorghan thought he saw it. These must be
the real accounts, and whoever had written them - the Holder, Belkas, or
the steward - had been adjusting the price paid for trade goods to hide
the discrepancy. It was a small enough change that, if anyone had
bothered to match up any individual trader's records, it could be put
down to a mistake.

**But why?** The two men had been buying luxuries, that was clear enough
- the fine wines, the furnishings of the office - but that had all been
accounted for openly. If a Holder wanted to purchase valuable items for
himself, that was his decision, as long as he didn't so live far beyond
his means that he couldn't meet his obligations to his Lord and his people.

Jorghan thought back to his previous cases. A gambling habit was
possible. Or maybe a woman. Though how he'd kept that a secret, in so
isolated a hold - the holders didn't seem particularly loyal to Belkas,
it was the old Holder, Beliron, they admired.

The Holder who'd had an accident, leaving his son to inherit.

He turned to the last of the hidden pages. This was different - not a
list of figures, but a letter. A love letter? Instinctively, he looked
away. As accustomed as he was to uncovering secrets that people would
prefer to remain hidden, he had a distaste for prying into personal
matters. But if he had been wrong, and there was a woman involved...

Then he saw the name signed at the bottom of the letter, and his brow
rose. This letter didn't belong to Belkas or his steward. It was from
the father, Beliron. And the name of the person to whom it was addressed
wasn't a woman.

It was a man's. Yulen. **The stablehand who disappeared?**

Jorghen frowned. This was material for blackmail if he'd ever seen any.
In a hold like this... It would explain the stablemaster's reaction to
the young man's name.

The payments had begun after Beliron's death, though. He supposed a son
might be embarrassed enough by such a letter with his father's name on
it to pay to keep it quiet. If the steward was the blackmailer, Belkas
might have wanted the man out of the way - but then, who had blown up
the smithy? Not the steward, surely. That would have been the end of his
nice little scheme to extract marks from his Holder.

Almost without thinking, he turned over the incriminating letter, and
blinked. Someone had scrawled on the back. Not the elegant script of the
former Holder, nor the neat hand of the steward, but in blocky, smudged
letters scrawled with a charcoal stick.

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID.

Last updated on the October 30th 2022

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Mystery at Shadow Peak (5)