Promise of Blood

Adamat’s weeklong investigation had turned up frustratingly little. The reeve handled the nation’s treasury—with the exception of the king’s purse, though there was a rumor that that had changed with Manhouch’s execution—from that little desk in the corner. He had an office on Joon Street, which he never visited, where a team of bookkeepers did most of the labor. Everything they did was double-checked by the reeve. He had no known hobbies, no known friends. His housekeeper had been with him for forty-some years, but no one considered them to be friends. He had one bodyguard, who went with him whenever he left the house, which was rare.

Rumor had it the reeve had ridden at the hunt, that he had been there when Tamas disappeared. Adamat couldn’t picture the man on a horse.

“You don’t seem the type of man to betray his country,” Adamat said. “As the city reeve you could undermine Adro from its very heart without Kez help. It’s not a question of money. My research indicates that you’re one of the wealthiest men in Adro. You receive two hundred thousand krana a year for services rendered, and you own three million acres of farmland in Fatrasta, half a million acres of Bakashcan coastline that includes a major port, a coal mine in Deliv, and half of a trading company in Kez. I do wonder at all the foreign stock. Do you not have faith in your country?”

“You’d know if you were more thorough,” Ondraus said. “I own three gold mines and twelve Mountainwatch toll roads. I own three hundred and twelve thousand acres of vineyards, and I finance a merchants’ guild in the north.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Ask your friend, Ricard Tumblar, if you want to know more. I personally employ three thousand of his union workers in my ironworks.”

“Among other factories,” Adamat said.

Ondraus’s eyes narrowed. “You knew.”

“I was just curious what you’d catalog as the most valuable.”

“If you don’t suspect me, then why are we having this conversation?”

“I never said I don’t suspect you. I’ll admit you are low on my list. I want to know, sir, what the books tell you.”

“I don’t get your meaning.”

By the way Ondraus’s hand tightened on his ledger Adamat suspected he understood perfectly. “Money. You track everything. Even things a reeve shouldn’t know you have cataloged.” Adamat pointed at the ledger with his cane. “I’ve taken a look at your books on Joon Street. Very thorough. Very impressive.”

“Those aren’t for public eyes,” Ondraus snapped.

“I’m not the public. I had to bully my way past your clerks. They’re very loyal to you. Now, tell me, what does the flow of money tell you?”

Ondraus watched him through those bespectacled eyes for several moments before he responded. Calculations were being made, thoughts sliding into place.

“If the motive is money,” Ondraus said, “which it almost always is, then you have nothing to suspect of either the Proprietor or Lady Winceslav. I’ve had access to the Winceslav books for months now and there is absolutely nothing irregular about them. The Proprietor—well, criminal or not, he pays his taxes. Every penny of them, even that made on illicit gains. A man who pays his taxes like that is not concerned with the day-to-day of the government. He wants nothing more than a stable world in which to expand his influence slowly, assuredly.”

“War can mean a great deal of money for an opportunist.”

“Opportunists do not pay their taxes,” Ondraus said.

“And the other councillors?”

Ondraus sniffed. “Prime Lektor is a mystery. The man’s finances do not exist. Very strange, that. Aside from the occasional grant from the university, it’s as if money does not even go through his hands. Ricard Tumblar is a businessman. He cooks the books as well as he can. He’s received very large sums of money lately from Brudania and from banks in Fatrasta and Gurla.”

“Brudania is a major ally of Kez.”

“And the banks in Gurla are owned by the Kez.”

“Fatrasta is not an ally,” Adamat said. “And I’m not sure if I can trust what you say about Ricard. The unionization of your workers must have infuriated you.”

“Did it?” Ondraus raised an eyebrow. “His unions have organized production in a way even I couldn’t. Revenue has increased three hundred percent in my ironworks and gold mines since the unions came in. Ask Ricard. I did not bar them. I welcomed the unions.”

Ondraus made a dismissive gesture, moving on. “Then there’s the arch-diocel. As a man of the cloth his movements are completely shrouded in secrecy. No one outside of their order may so much as glance at their books. Yet he spends enough to make a king weep. Far more than his allowance as an arch-diocel. I often wonder at that.”

“And yourself?”

“I am to suspect myself?”

“Is there any reason you’d want Tamas killed?”