Page 13 of Veiled Justice
‘She was in training. She lived by the codex.’
‘The codex?’ I asked.
‘Our book of law. During training, we divest ourselves of personal items to better learn ourselves, to learn what is a loss to us and what is not. She has been in training for two years. She only had one more year until comforts would be restored to her.’
I nodded as if I understood, but I didn’t. If you tried to take my books away from me, I’d have set you on fire. ‘There’s nothing here. Let’s go.’
Krieg held the door for me. I appreciated that he’d taken the opportunity to show me the room; I’d planned on asking for access, but at least now it was done and dusted.
He led me out of the building and again I expected him to offer to drive me home, but instead he marched off towards the outbuildings. I followed silently.
When we came to one of the doors, he reared back and kicked it in. With a concussive bang, it slammed open. ‘Woah!’ I protested sharply. ‘You could have knocked first.’
‘I could also have used the key that I have,’ he admitted dryly. ‘But that wouldn’t have had the same effect.’ He moved inside and bellowed, ‘Aron!’
There was a thump upstairs as if someone had fallen out of bed, then a naked young ogre stumbled downstairs. When he saw us, his bleary eyes looked wild and confused. ‘Your Excellence?’ he stammered, clearly half-asleep and half-panicking.
Neither he nor Krieg seemed bothered by his nudity, but with the variety of shifters in the Other, plenty of magical denizens didn’t worry about being seen without their clothes. Some even tried to weaponise it by making the human wizards feel awkward as they swayed around in the buff. To dampen my own reactions, I’d taken a few holidays on nudist beaches until I wasn’t fazed by the human form in any of its guises. I still felt a little uncomfortable with people walking around in their birthday suits, but not enough that I couldn’t keep my eyes on the balls.Ball.
Now I kept my eyes on Aron’s head and ignored anything dangling below.
‘Helga is dead,’ Krieg snarled.
Aron dropped to the floor like he’d had a solid kick to the solar plexus. ‘What?’ he whispered, eyes wide.
‘Helga is dead,’ Krieg repeated. ‘And her parents said she was with you last night.’
‘Helga,’ Aron whimpered. His eyes filled with tears and then, like a switch had been flipped, they were full of rage. With a roar, he picked up the chair next to him and threw it through the window then started to destroy his living room.
The more he destroyed, the more the tension slid from Krieg’s shoulders. ‘He wasn’t involved,’ he murmured decisively to me.
No, I didn’t think so either. In his rage Aron was destroying everything in sight – everything but a framed photograph of him and a beaming Helga.
‘He loved her.’ I hadn’t meant to say it out loud.
Krieg sighed unhappily. ‘Yes. He loved her.’
‘It wasn’t requited?’ I queried softly.
‘No,’ Aron said bitterly, freezing mid-punch. ‘It wasn’t requited.’ Darn ogres and their excellent hearing. ‘It wasn’t me she loved,’ he spat.
‘Who did she love?’ I asked curiously.
Aron looked at Krieg then, with a snarl, jerked his chin towards his High King. ‘Him.’
There was no shock or surprise on Krieg’s face; then again, there was nothing much there at all. His expression remained calmly blank. I wouldnothave wanted to play poker with this dude.
‘Helga was not with you yesterday,’ Krieg started, ignoring Aron’s accusation. ‘Do you know where she was?’
‘No,’ Aron said sulkily and folded his arms.
Eyes up, Stace.
‘She just asked me to alibi her with her parents,’ he continued, ‘so I said I would.’
‘Has she got any enemies?’ I asked.
Aron snorted. ‘She’s the nicest ogre ever. No, she didn’t have enemies. She hadn’t even started her career; she hadn’t completed any contracts so she couldn’t have got any enemies through work. No, this is bullshit.’ The wheels in his brain belatedly started toturn. ‘How did she die?’ A frown marred his forehead. ‘It wasn’t an accident?’
