I sit straighter and try to gather myself with a breath. “Therefore, I leave it up to his expertise.”
The room is silent.
Eyo wrinkles his brow. He was a skilled debater and orator, but I shouldn’t be surprised, as he’s a well-recognized intellectual. But his mind is slower on his third glass of wine. “Is that a vote to proceed?”
“Yes, I believe that is what Verhardt would have wanted,” I say.
At his name, the senators blink, skew their faces, or physically recoil. They react as if the Senate Leader was already forgotten or I was bringing up a forbidden topic.
Senator Terrance sniffs. “He is dead, his vote no longer relevant. It is a matter of what you, in your admittedly limited opinion, believe is best for Pryor.”
His tone is so loud and condescending that steel rises in my spine. I release the napkin and lift my chin. Whatever they wanted when they appointed me doesn’t matter—I’m here now.
“In that case, as a citizen of the capital has died under mysterious circumstances, I vote to let the Praetorian proceed in his inquiry.”
XVII.
Torren
Terrance, Suh, and Eyo wanted the matter closed, yet Kerasea voted to allow me to investigate. Is one of them the murderer? Terrance’s and Eyo’s sentries were in the pool with Antinous. Either could have dropped in the lapis. But why frame Kerasea?
When I found the temple knife, I thought she could secretly be a cold-blooded killer, but every time I observe her, she seems genuine. My gut says she isn’t a murderess. And if I’m right, then she’s in grave danger.
I groan at myself. What difference does it make? She is not my charge. I have no reason to protect her. My duty is first and only to the Senate.
One by one, I interview the ten household servants, six Senate pages, six sentries, and the servant to the High Priestess. The sun lowers in the sky as I scribble codes on my notepad.
Although it takes all afternoon, every single person is predictably useless. No one saw or heard anything, but I had to question them to note personalities, tells, and inconsistencies. I spent extra time with Sentry Avarre and Sentry Calais, the men I found moving Antinous’s body, but to no avail. Calais was on duty late last night, and Avarre was asleep. Both of these stories were confirmed by other sentries, so once again, I have no leads.
I now need to locate Antinous’s chambers. The problem, of course, is that whoever killed him had hours to find his rooms, but that was true before we discovered his body. Given the choice, I opted to record everyone’s stories first. That way, I can question them again if I find evidence.
Somehow, I doubt I will.
Still, I begin my search on the ground floor. Antinous had taken the stairs to this level after talking to Kerasea.
The servant quarters are cramped and sparse compared to the rest of the palace; however, they are dry and temperate, thus better than most of the tenements in the Northside of the capital.
Jubilee once had three hundred servants sharing these fifty bedchambers and communal toilets. Now, there are only ten, but I still have all these rooms to search.
No nobleman would ordinarily choose to stay in this warren, but Antinous might’ve, since he didn’t want to be seen.
Using a skeleton key, I open and close door after door, but either the rooms belong to the servants or they are empty.
I proceed up to the first floor. I doubt he was staying in a ballroom or drawing room, but I have to look.
Nothing—no sign of him.
The second floor won’t be used this conclave, and as I unlock the doors, I realize this would be an excellent place to hide.
Seven rooms in, I find Antinous’s chambers.
As soon as I push the door open, it is obvious that I am not the first to arrive. The chambers are ransacked, from the feather bed cut open to books and papers strewn over the floor.
His chambers being here and not on the ground floor means he was already heading to the baths when he left the kitchens.
That entirely rules out Kerasea.
With a sigh, I force myself to focus. One thing, one place at a time. I inhale, clear my mind, and begin to inventory the scene. Whoever ransacked this room probably found what they were looking for, but each paper left behind could yield a clue, and each book could contain a hidden secret.
