Page 26 of The King of Koraha
The advisor pointed to the water. “This should explain a few things. It’s the reason the theft wasn’t discovered right away, and why we know it was an inside job.”
“How deep is the pool?” Rendor asked.
“Deep enough that you’d have to swim in order to reach the bottom.”
“Swim?” Shyla had never heard that word before.
Najib moved his arms, sweeping them out from the front of his body to the back, making big semi-circles. “It’s how you move through water. It’s hard and you have to hold your breath. Korahans aren’t meant to be in the water. We flail and sink like rocks. Swimming is an awkward, exhausting affair.” He shuddered. “Besides, no one can stay under for more than one angle without needing air.” He gave them a sheepish look. “The guards like to have competitions. It proves their bravery or something like that.”
“Do all the guards know how to swim?” Shyla crouched down next to the water. She couldn’t even see the bottom.
“Yes. There’s been a number of accidental drownings, so they’re all taught just in case they fall in.”
“Is that how you get to the coins, then? By swimming?” Rendor asked.
“No one swims in this pool. The King lifts the water into the air and it’s easy to climb down the ladder and get what we need.”
She dipped her hand into the water. It was cold, but not much colder than the air. “How many coins are kept in here at a time?”
“There is always at least fifty thousand, but the rest depends on when. The taxes come in once a circuit, and at that time there is the greatest amount of coins in the pool. By the time the taxes are due to arrive, we’re usually back to that fifty thousand. However, during the two circuits that the old king was dying, all the taxes were dumped in here and nothing was spent. So we estimated there were over a million.”
Wow. Shyla would never see that many coins in her entire life. And that amount couldn’t be smuggled out all at once. It must have taken multiple trips. The guards had the opportunity and were her first suspects.
“When was the theft discovered?” Rendor asked.
“When the old King died, the new King’s first order of business was to lift the water so everyone could be paid. The pool only held that fifty thousand and the King gave it to the guards and servants.” Najib held up a hand, stopping their next question. “The King insisted on paying them their back wages. There’s nothing left. The next tax payment is due to arrive in two hundred and thirty-four sun jumps.”
She considered the problem. “Who oversaw the dumping of the taxes?”
“The old King’s advisor.”
Suspect number two. “Are they still in Qulsary?”
“Yes, she is enjoying her retirement. And I know what you’re thinking, but she has been exonerated. A King’s advisor is the same age as the King and the old King lived for eighty-four circuits.”
That meant the advisor was now eighty-five circuits old. Probably too old to be swimming and carrying heavy bags of coins.
“We still want to talk to her,” Rendor said.
“I’ll make the arrangements,” Najib said.
Shyla swirled her fingers in the water. The King could command it. But was it due to a divine gift or because of magic? She concentrated her will on the surface, imagining it was similar to the surface of the desert and composed of a million tiny grains of sand or, in this case, a million drops.
Float, she commanded.
Nothing happened. She tried again, putting more power into the order. Again nothing. So much for that theory.
“Do the castle’s staff know how to swim?” Rendor asked.
“A few can.”
“We’ll talk to them as well.”
“All right.” Najib looked doubtful.
“What is it?” she asked him.
“It’s just that it would take a long time to bring up all those coins from the bottom.”
