“Have you seen the Inquisitor, Marcus?” Alexander demanded of a passing farmer. The man directed the young Inquisitor to the house of Edmond the carpenter. Alexander took off and arrived just as Elena, in tears, hurried through the door into her father’s shop and home. Marcus stood to the side of the home, helmet in hand.
“Alexander,” he called out as he noticed his apprentice, “what have you learned?” Marcus continued as he walked to meet him.
“Edwin said that Simone had snuck over last night, offered herself to him and tried to convince him that the two of them should run off together and start new lives in Wollema. Says he rejected her, sent her away and never touched her.”
“How sure are you that he was telling the truth?”
“He swore it in blood.”
“Well, I finally tracked down Patrick. Boy said he’s delivered a dozen bottles of Bitter Kiss to men within the town in the past half a year, including William the smith. I was passing by Edmond’s house so I decided to speak with Elena one last time, confront her with what we know about Simone now. Privately, of course, don’t want to spread details about Simone’s life more than necessary.”
“Did you learn anything from her?”
“Indeed I did. Simone had taken a lover about three months back, though she kept the man’s identity a secret. Said the man gave her a bottle of Bitter Kiss to keep her belly flat.”
“Clearly, it didn’t work.”
“No, perhaps he told her the instructions wrong or she lost track of days. In any case, that’s not all I learned from Elena. Turns out this man had been giving her gifts for her companionship a couple of months before they lay together. Gifts in the form of valuable iron coins from Wollema that she could use to start her new life there.”
“But Wollema doesn’t make coins from iron, do they?”
“Of course not, they use gold and silver like any other nation.”
“Didn’t William say his discs had been stolen within the last month? According to what you learned from Elena, someone had been giving them to her for around half a year.”
“Indeed, I think we need to speak to our smith again.”
The pair of men made their way to the smithy, which was now silent.
“William? We need to speak with you.” Marcus called out as he banged his fist on the door. When no answer came Marcus placed his left hand on his dagger and opened the door slowly with his right.
“William? I’m coming in.” Marcus called out, looking inside. The two men entered cautiously, slowly picking their way through the rooms of the building, calling out to the smith as they went.
“He’s not here.” Marcus said after a few moments. The two men exited the home.
“Where could he have gone?” Alexander wondered aloud.
“I’m not sure, but I think it’s plain to see that William was Simone’s lover, I’m sure of it now, and therefore most likely her killer as well.”
Marcus drummed his fingers on the hand of his dagger for a moment. “Alexander, I want you to check on Eugenia. If Simone had told William she was pregnant before she died, he may be angry with Eugenia that the tonic he paid for didn’t work. Go quickly, take someone’s horse if you can. I’ll search around town to see if anyone saw where he went in case he fled elsewhere.”
Alexander nodded and took off running towards an inn at the edge of town. He entered the stables and saw several horses being fed by a young man wearing a leather slave collar.
“You, saddle up a horse for me, I need one quickly.” Alexander barked. The young man looked afraid but nodded silently.
“Don’t worry, I’ll tell the owner, just have ready it for me and bring it around front.” Alexander shouted as he walked around to the front of the building and entered the inn itself. Several faces turned towards the newcomer dressed in his dark grey armor and the conversation inside the room died down to a few quiet murmurs.
“Attention, everyone,” Alexander said in a voice that was not as authoritative as he would have liked, “I am taking a horse from the stables on the authority of the Inquisition. I will return it as soon as I have concluded my business.”
Alexander turned and exited the building. He could hear grumbling of patrons as he left, no doubt upset that their horse could be the one taken but no one dared speak against an official demand from an Inquisitor.
A few moments passed before the stable hand appeared, leading a small brown horse. Alexander climbed into the saddle with the hand’s assistance and took the reins. Marcus kept several riding horses at the villa and had been teaching Alexander to ride for when they travel to check in on the more remote towns and villages in their jurisdiction but the young Inquisitor was far from an expert rider. Thankfully, the horse Alexander rode was well trained and calm, responsive to the commands of the stranger in armor riding it.
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Alexander urged the horse down the path towards Eugenia’s cottage at a quick pace. The trees rushed past in a blur, the fading light making it appear as if they were whipping by faster than they were. He hoped he would arrive at Eugenia’s cottage before the sun set completely, he did not relish the idea of leading a strange horse through the woods alone with no light source.
Eugenia’s cottage came into view beyond the trees as Alexander passed a small bend in the path. He could see the smith, William, standing in front of the door to the cabin and heard him shouting as he banged on the entrance. Alexander rode to the edge of the clearing and looped the reins around the fence post.
“William!” Alexander called out, stepping carefully towards the large man. The smith turned and faced the newly arrived Inquisitor.
“I didn’t kill that girl,” he called out with a slow shake of his head.
“It looks a lot like you did.” Alexander replied as he continued to advance towards the other man slowly.
“I didn’t kill her.” William repeated. He turned and faced Alexander, clenching and unclenching his fists.
“But you did get her pregnant.”
“I didn’t force her! She was more than willing!”
“Easy for you to say, her being dead and unable to say otherwise.”
“Simone didn’t want to spend her whole life in Croton, pushing out babies for whatever man her father married her to that would be good for his business. She wanted passion and excitement, like women have east across the sea, I gave her a taste of that. She started things, not me, I just, I had been lonely since fever took my wife and boy, I couldn’t resist her. We were careful at first, not doing anything that could get her pregnant, but she wanted more so I got a bottle of Bitter Kiss a few months ago so we could be safe, but it was her idea!”
“But you paid her for company with fake coins, tricked her into thinking she’d have money to start a new life with in Wollema.”
“That- I didn’t mean for her to take it that way. She loved hearing stories from when I travelled in my youth, thought she’d be excited to have something from far away she could hold in her hands. I didn’t think she’d plan to actually do anything with the money.”
“It’s very suspicious that a girl you slept with and gave counterfeit money to winds up dead at your doorstep,” Alexander said, perhaps a dozen paces from the smith now.
“I told you, I didn’t kill her!” William shouted, pointing an angry finger at Alexander. “She came to me before dawn this morning, barged right in. I had told her never to come to my house, but she woke me up, all out of breath in a panic. She saying she was pregnant, that the potion I gave her didn’t work, that she needed help leaving Croton before her father found out.”
William shook his head before continuing, “Before I could say anything she just gasped, clutched at her chest and collapsed on my floor, not breathing. I couldn’t rouse her so I put her body outside. I wanted to take her further away but couldn’t risk being seen. Once you found the bottle and coins I knew you’d come around to me. But I didn’t kill her! It was Eugenia's potion, it poisoned her, I know it!”
“Then come back to Croton with me, tell your story to the town elders and I’m sure they’ll only hold you accountable for unlawful intercourse with Simeon’s daughter.”
William shook his head angrily. “No, I will not be punished for succumbing to some lustful woman’s temptation! They’ll still think I killed her, you said it yourself, it’s too suspicious that a girl I lay with drops dead in my house.”
“William, I’ll testify that you didn’t kill her,” came a muffled woman’s voice from behind the door. “You said you gave her the tonic only some months ago? The bottle the Inquisitors brought me was empty, if she drank nearly a year’s supply in one sitting it would have stopped her heart within hours.”
“I still gave it to her! It was your poison but I gave it!” William shouted, turning to bang his fist on Eugenia’s door before turning back to Alexander. “I am going to take some provisions and that horse and I am leaving. Do not try to stop me.”
Alexander shook his head. “I can’t let you leave, William. Justice demands that you answer for your role in all this.”
“Very well.” William said. For a moment Alexander thought the smith would come quietly. Instead, the large man yelled and charged at Alexander with surprising speed for a man his size. Alexander saw the flash of steel as William pulled a dagger from his belt as he ran. The distance between the two disappeared faster than Alexander could blink. Instinctively he brought his left arm up while his right grasped the hilt of his sword. The smith threw his shoulder into the Inquisitor, knocking the smaller man off balance and throwing him to the ground. Alexander slid in the dirt and fumbled for his weapons as William advanced on him, dagger in hand. The smith’s weapon was no match for Inquisition-forged armor but Alexander knew that if he couldn’t get back on his feet with his own weapon in hand quickly the other man could simply hold him down and slide the blade through a gap in his armor.
William cried out in pain and surprise and dropped his dagger as an arrow struck him from behind, protruding a short distance out of his right shoulder. He whirled around to see Eugenia standing in the open door, bow in hand. Siezing the opportunity, Alexander scrambled to his feet and withdrew his own dagger. William turned towards the sound and began to raise his hands as the Inquisitor plunged his blade deep into the smith’s chest. The man grunted and stepped back as Alexander withdrew his dagger. William stumbled and collapsed to the earth, writhing for a moment before laying still.
Eugenia put down her bow and stepped cautiously towards the large man, kneeling down to examine him. She looked up at the Inquisitor and shook her head. “Struck in the heart.” she said.
Alexander blinked. He had served with Marcus as an Inquisitor for two years, spent three years training in combat at the Inquisition academy before that. Even the last two years of his time in the orphanage at Tariopolis had involved basic fighting skills in case the army would take him when he became too old. Before now, however, he had never actually been in a real fight for his life. It dawned on Alexander that he had just killed a man. He felt numb, weak. His mind felt like it was racing but also blank at the same time.
“Come,” Eugenia said as she rose up and placed her hands on Alexander’s shoulders. “I’ll fetch a lantern, we’ll take William’s body back to town together, tell everyone what happened. I’ll let everyone know what he said, and that he attacked you and gave you no choice.”
Alexander nodded but said nothing.