Tales of Midbar: Secret Priest

“Firstly,” said Traivanin, “can you tell me where I might find Narblo, your school counselor? I believe you’re close to him.”

“He’s been a family friend since before Clindar was born,” said Dad.

“I know where he lives,” I said, “but I haven’t seen him for several days and I don’t know where he is at this moment.”

“His wife reported him missing this morning,” said Traivanin. “He was supposed to be going to the sea with her and the kids yesterday but some unidentified men came to the house and said he’d have to go with them because of some emergency. He left with them and that’s the last thing we know.”

He stared at me.

“I don’t know what that was about,” I said although I had my suspicions.

“What’s this got to do with Clindar?” asked Dad.

“Last night, shortly after sapphire dark, your mother arrived at Narblo’s house, clearly distraught and asked to see him. When she was told Narblo’s whereabouts were unknown, she left, very angry. I’m thinking these incidents may be related. Do you know what your mother was upset about?”

“Not really.”

“I believe she was upset by Miandri using Old Magic,” said Dad. “That type of magic is notoriously unreliable with a tendency to drive people mad.”

“Why would she want to see Narblo about that?” asked Traivanin.

“The magic produced a number of pictures, one of which showed Narblo,” I said. “I’m not sure which pictures upset her, people seem to interpret these pictures any way they want to or perhaps to confirm their fears.”

“We’ve already spoken to Anden but she wasn’t very helpful. Now the other matter, which may be related,” said Trainvanin, producing several photographs and placing them on the shelf along the wall. “What can you tell me about these boys?”

As I’d suspected the photos were school portraits of the rape gang. I had conflicting feelings about this. I’d killed some people but I had no sympathy for them. I tried to keep calm and think like I was acting. Traivanin couldn’t read minds but Dad could. At least I could answer this first question honestly.

“Jedris,” I said, pointing at one photo, “Orblas, Goflakh, Utnisdian and Sned. They go to my school so I could tell you quite a bit about them but I’m not close to any of them.”

“Perhaps you’d like to ask a more specific question,” said Dad.

“Who would want to hurt them?” asked Trainvanin

“Probably quite a few people,” I said. “They’re popular and I think most the girls in the school have had sex with them but they’re rather stupid and arrogant and aren’t very nice to other people.”

“So you feel that’s unfair?” asked Trainvanin.

“Yes but so do lots of other people.”

“Anybody in particular stand out?”

“Not really,” I said. “I think most the less popular kids have problems with them, particularly the boys, but the popular kids are always sabotaging each other’s space suits. It’s likely there’s stuff I don’t know about. Oh yes, when you checked the boys at my school for residue from the rapist’s date rape artifact you pulled Jedris, Goflakh and Utnisdian out of the line, like you’d found some suspicious residue on them. That may have made somebody think they were responsible for the serial rapes.”

“Only one man is responsible for that,” Trainvanin said, lying. “They were found dead this morning, in Valley Park. We haven’t confirmed the cause of death but it looks like magic.”

“Really!” I said. “I’ve been here all day. They may have done something stupid with an artifact but that’s just speculation.”

“Don’t speculate,” said Dad.

“There is a connection with you though. Your friend Miandri was in the park shortly before the bodies were found. She approached a group of people and claimed her friend was being raped by a man. She proceeded to lead a group of people, including an off-duty police officer, to a wooded area, where the rape was apparently taking place. However, we found no sign of this rape, just a group of five dead boys. Miandri also claimed the rape victim was Dwendra, who was her new room mate. She was very insistent about the identity of the victim and there was just one man attacking her.”

“Dwendra’s been here most the day,” I said.

“I know,” said Traivanain. “I already checked and she arrived here some time before all this happened. This raises the question of why Miandri would say one man was raping one girl, who was a considerable distance away at the time, when there were five dead boys?”

“Because she’s mad,” I said.

“Both her and her mother use Old Magic,” said Dad.

“One last question, are all these incidents relating to you connected or is this a statistical blip?”

“Don’t know and I won’t speculate,” I said.

“Thanks for helping,” said Trainvanin, “I’m not sure it’s clarified things much but we’ll see what the other evidence tells us.”

We got in the car and Dad said, “Right you two, what is really going on?”

“Can you be more specific?” I asked.

“I know you know more about those deaths than you admit. Also Dwendra, you were supposed to be going shopping with Miandri but instead you show up at the court.”

“It wast boring and I thought it wouldst be more helpful for to supporteth Clindar.”

“Court is very boring!” said Dad. “Now, well I can’t think of anything that makes sense without having you in two places at once. Did the plan rely on the police not figuring out ..? No you’re not that stupid, you wanted an alibi! You knew Miandri was going to pull something and made sure everybody knew you weren’t there at the time.”

“I haft some ability to foreseeth the future.”

“So what was Miandri trying to do?” asked Dad.

“Ask her.”

“Oh, I will but it’s very difficult getting a straight answer out of her.”

“That I knoweth. My speculation ist she wert trying to hath me raped, or maketh it appeareth I hath been raped, so I wouldst be disqualified as a wife for a Yohoist priest.”

Of course by now I’d figured out we couldn’t tell anybody we knew about Kiard, Miandri, the dead boys and probably Mum, conspiring to have Dwendra raped.

“I find that hard to believe!” said Dad. “For one thing, there are no Yohoist priests and can be no more ever again. For another, you’re the only person on the planet who cares about Yohoism and one of few who knows much about it. I’m hardly an expert myself so I’m not sure you get your facts right. Also Anden said something about you having been raped.”

“No, a Nuhara didst try but he didst not succeed.”

Dad had his chair turned back and gave her a quizzical look.

“One of the pictures produced by the Old Magic showed the Nuhara trying to rape her,” I said. “Perhaps that’s what core meltdowned Mum, but if that is the case, I don’t see why that would make her go looking for Narblo.”

Dad just turned his chair back round and turned on the engine.

As soon as we got home, Dwendra marched over to Miandri and said, “Thou tried to hath me raped!”

“That was like a totally awesome...” said Miandri.

“Girls!” said Attan.

“That art something nobody shouldst do unto anybody! The only excuse for rape art insanity!”

“Clindar can you take Dwendra,” he threw me the car keys, “well anywhere away from here. Just get back around the time Mum should be back and don’t disengage the autopilot.”

“Thanks,” I said, catching the keys.

“They shouldn’t really be left alone together,” said Miandri.

“I think it’s more important to keep Dwendra away from you for now,” said Dad.