Echoes
(or The Case of the Smashed Pondu)
(continued)
Mureek burned with embarrassment. He hated airy-in-the-lobes people,
such as this ridiculous Healer Daq, with his colored stones and burning
sticks and silly tones he made upon his assortment of flutes and bells.
It was so much more pleasant to surround oneself with people of reason
and sanity. Of course, Abane thought the world of this individual, and
if Mureek didn't know that Daq had had his pondu removed so that he
would no longer be distracted by urges to fertilize eggs and could devote
himself to his "spiritual" studies, he might not quite approve
of his mate spending so many sannos with him.
But time was short now, and Mureek knew that Wogan was hanging onto
his position as Chief of Guards by a thread as thin as the hair of a
seefer. He knew too that if Wogan were forced to leave, he might soon
pass from this world. Wogan was a person who existed only for his work
and the thought of political horizons.
So, when Abane returned within a miraculous blink of time, with her
hand reverently upon the shoulder of her teacher, Mureek made a supernoorian
effort to be respectful. "Good day to you, Sir," he emitted,
jerking his head in a quick, deferential dip.
Healer Daq, wearing his usual blue and silver necklace and girdle of
rose colored ropes, nodded in return. "Abane tells me that you
have need of my humble service?"
Mercifully, there was nothing of amused triumph in the healer's eyes.
Not that Mureek was looking at them any more than he could help. He
did notice the remarkably pleasant aroma of Daq's emissions, which seemed
to be a combination of certain spices and flower essences.
"Abane tells me that you are a sensitive."
"On occasion," replied the healer modestly.
"Well, then. I wonder if you would mind stepping into this room
and allowing yourself to feel what you feel, to do whatever it is that
sensitives do."
Abane lifted her hand from Healer Daq's shoulder, and he stepped into
the room. His reaction was immediate and startling. "Oh!"
he exclaimed in a great huff of scent, as if someone had knocked the
air out of him. He backed out of the room, and Abane rushed to his side.
"Are you all right, Teacher? I am so sorry. Are you all right?"
Daq's eyes were glassy, as if he had received a great shock, and he
covered his mouth with his long fingers. Mureek could see that he was
panting quietly.
"I am not all right," he finally told them. "Allow me
to collect myself." After a moment, he continued. "I see why
you have called me here. You want to know about the terrible deed. All
right, I will tell you what I sense from the echoes in the room, but
I will not go back in there."
Mureek stepped out of the doorway and stood, unconsciously wringing
his hands. "Tell me, Teacher," he said, forgetting all the
times he had snorted over this person.
Healer Daq nodded as if to himself, his large head seeming to wobble
on his narrow neck. "Someone dropped a dead body into this room,
and someone else mutilated it."
"What?" burst Mureek, forgetting his manners. "You are
saying that the murderer and the mutilator are not one and the same?"
Healer Daq tilted his head to the right in the affirmative. "The
one who mutilated would never have murdered, but while she had the chance,
she took it. Her despair led her to rage."
Mureek nodded, understanding immediately who "she" was. "But
why was she in despair?"
"I do not know that," said Daq. "She felt betrayed,
led astray. That is all I can feel."
"And the murderer?"
"There is only a small whiff left by him, just a minute echo of
his scent. Somehow he dropped this body into this place, and this is
the truest betrayal here. Much more so than that of the dead one toward
the mutilator. The dying one's own egg brother stole his life. I feel
it was done for what this killing brother thought of as loyalty. It
shows you how twisted virtues can be made to be."
Mureek looked into the eyes of the older male with a profound regard.
How wrong he had been to belittle this person. Ashamed, he stole a glance
up at his mate, but her eyes were smiling down at her teacher.
"How can I repay you?" he emitted.
"By being who you are, the good mate of my student," replied
Healer Daq.
Mureek wondered exactly how much Daq knew about Abane's desire for
offspring and his own refusal to oblige.
After the Healer had been profusely thanked and led out, Mureek sent
Abane to ask for some private time with her employer. Just to clear
up some details.
In the meantime, he signaled Lao back into the room and closed the
door. She was quivering as Mureek began his questioning.
By late afternoon, Mureek was perched in the sitting pit of Wogan's
office. "This is what appears to have happened," he began.
Of course he had no intention of mentioning the use of Healer Daq, and
fortunately, a subdued and obviously aghast Kater Lawfene had ended
up supplying much needed detail when confronted with Mureek's confidence
about how the murder had occurred.
Wogan was gnawing on a finno stick, something he did since quitting
his long habit of gan chewing. "Yes?" he replied impatiently.
"The deceased was active in protesting his mother's policies as
District Administrator of Food Distribution. Being who he was, there
was real danger of the party he supported possibly winning the election,
if not this time, the next one. Kato Geffno, although politically active
and noted for his intelligence, had a problem with zin. More than once,
he had been to Calbec for a period of weaning, but as all good zin users
tend to do, he returned to his habit. In addition to zin, Kato Geffno
was evidently liberal in the use of his pondu. According to my sources
in the House of Lawfene, he did not limit this use to females of his
own rank, but enjoyed the power he could exhibit over lessers such as
servants. The head female servant of the household, Lao, was one of
these, and unfortunately, her eggs were fertilized. Naively expecting
that Geffno would accept her eggs into his pouch, she was dismayed to
learn that Geffno had no such intention. There she was, stuck with a
batch of fertilized eggs and nowhere to deposit them and no means to
hire a surrogate. As everyone knows, a thwarted, childing female is
a force of nature unleashed."
"You are telling me that this Lao was the perpetrator?"
"Of the mutilated pondu, yes, but she was not the killer."
"Who was?"
"Kato Moon, a brother of Geffno, but of an earlier egg batch who
no longer lives in the Lawfene compound but in his own quarters elsewhere.
He was the only surviving offspring of that egg batch and an individual
of over excessive loyalty to his mother. Kater Lawfene expressed that
she had worried about this son ever since the rest of his batch had
died. His emotional stability had never been good. Believing that his
brother was plotting against their mother, he got Geffno high on zin
then murdered him, and with the help of his servant, who is also in
custody, lowered the body into the Santorium, hoping that everyone would
believe Geffno had drugged himself to death at home. In came Lao on
her morning rounds to discover her dead lover, who had only the day
before given her the news that he would never carry her eggs to term
and that she was on her own. In a fury, she grabbed one of the spades
kept in the Santorium for the thinning of the moss and..."
Wogan waved a hand in the Noorian signal for if-you-continue-I-will-spew.
"Has she admitted it?"
"You behave as if what she did was worse than what Kato Moon did.
Moon's servant spilled his glands and told all, but neither Lao nor
Moon have admitted anything yet. They are now sitting in the Lorean
Bath and it is only a matter of time before the chemical steam will
loosen their scent glands and all will spill out. I have no doubts about
what they will emit."
Wogan stood and held out his long fingers to brush across those of
Mureek. "Well done, my friend," he emitted. "You have
definitely saved my pointy posterior."
And Daq saved mine, Mureek thought, but you will never know that part.
On the way home, Mureek had a sudden flash memory of Daq's blessing
upon him before the healer left Kater Lawfene's compound — a tinkling
of bells, a tapping about his head and shoulders of some fancy stone
or other — and he was suddenly suspicious. Suspicion soon turned
into a nagging worry, though Mureek's logical mind argued against it.
No, surely nothing had happened. It was one thing to intuit the remains
of what had occurred in a place and quite another to throw a spell.
Spell casting was primitive and ridiculous.
Yet, when Mureek climbed down into his compound and laid eyes upon
Abane, a longing such as he had never known came over him, and though
he had arrived hungry, now before having any thought of the evening
meal, Mureek pulled her onto the floor and began the process of giving
her what she wanted.
