Chapter 27

While walking through the better district, Zuri stopped in a bakery and also in a butcher shop. He still had plenty of coin, and he thought a gift would be proper. The walk also gave him time to think.

Of what he had learned, he was trying to fit into usable bits. He was accepted as Guraamong these Guras; they failed to grasp his Ghura nature. Even namedropping Qirin did not deter some of the better ranked ones. They were narrow and myopic, but they were not slow or unlearned. Yes, they had been through the college, but many got through with plenty of cheats. Also, they came anxious to the Convocation, but the shrewd arrived armed. They were more competitive than he remembered and the heat of it divided them against each other when there was an opportunity to move up the ranks.

Every point should have been exploitable, but he was at a loss. He would not be rushing in with an army to mow them down where they stood. He knew of no mechanism that would cause them to turn on their fellows and strike each other down either. He had considered spiking their drink or food with Qirin drugs, which had seemed plausible only weeks ago. He was seeking vengeance though and not murder. He needed to focus on bringing down the institution while it was gathered in one place rather than bringing down the individuals.

His ruminations followed him into the Borgin District. He had no ready answers and nothing in his palace appeared to be related to the dilemma he was facing now. He kept to the side of the walk.

“Where do you think you’re going, now” A dirty face appeared before his eyes with a scar under the nose that ran to the cheek. Zuri felt a sharp prick at his gut.

Zuri grabbed the knife hand with his free hand and yanked hard on the man’s Ahsa. The man went straight down, while his comrade slammed into Zuri from the side. Zuri refused to budge from where his feet were planted. He slapped his open hand on the second man’s face and grasped his Ahsa, squelching it.

“I am death,” Zuri whispered in the man’s ear. “Having summoned me, I have come. While you still can, tell your brothers I am coming for them too.” He released the man, allowing him to collapse next to his prone partner. The second attacker was struggling to breathe, as if his lungs no longer worked well.

Zuri picked up his fallen packages and left the two where they lay. He had no doubt that the story of the Gura who took down the local toughs would circulate quickly. Little did it matter that most any other Gura would have bled out on the spot. If his work as a Journeyman Master continued as a confrontation in Borgin District, then so be it. The place needed a bit of order that the constabulary would never deliver. On the other hand, he was kicking himself for not carrying a staff to and from the Convocation.

He entered the brothel through the front door. He was greeted by the bouncer who did not know quite what to do with the packages. “Dinner,” Zuri said. “Or breakfast, lunch, and dinner again.

“How?”

“The Gura always have coin,” Zuri said. “The trick is learning how to pry it out of their small, sweaty palms. Since I have learned that one should never keep blood money, I feel compelled to spend it for the benefit of others. Today, the Gura benefit those who carried me during my student days in Lewa Ilu. Thus decrees First Master Zuri of the Ghura.”

“Ah, sure,” the bouncer said. “I’ll take these, uh, gifts to the cook straightaway. Madam wants a word with you.”

The madam’s office had a view of the street below softened by the planter of small flowers she maintained on the windowsill. When he entered her office, she hastily slammed shut her large ledger book. The room seemed to reflect her no-nonsense approach, even the flowers.

“I have news,” Zuri said. They spoke for an hour. Many tentative plans were offered back and forth across the desk. Some of the proposals survived to merit further discussion. Most of the other ideas died a quick death as Zuri learned the business view from the capital was far removed from the business views in Covanera or Kaosa. As a beginning proposition, overhead was much higher in Lewa Ilu, and graft was more pernicious, as if such a thing were possible.

Zuri retreated to the flat roof of the building, an old haunt of his. Taking his new staff, he began running through the movements he had mastered in Ungjin. The task was harder than he expected, as the staff was unforgiving in execution on one hand yet boundaryless in extending his muscles. He came close to wrenching his arm out of his socket before he realized the danger. He worked up a great sweat.

Ellabet returned earlier than he expected. She explained that older men paid the best, worked the fastest and were easily satisfied. These were not men who sat around a bar with a wench on their arm and spouted drunken nonsense for hours. “These are sensible men,” she said. “They consume one or two drinks if they are daring, stuff themselves, and then acquire a quick roll in the hay before securing a good night’s sleep alone in their beds. Bing, bang, boom, and they’re done for the evening.”

“How ordinary,” Zuri said. “I think I’m disappointed.”

“I made my money for the day and did it in a reasonable amount of time,” Ellabet said. “I don’t need to take another customer tonight. Instead, I get to spend time with you.”

“Thank you for the invitation,” Zuri said. “I’m a little too wound up to sleep, but not that sort of wound up. Why are you frowning?”

“Pira is dead, why aren’t you, I dunno, crying over her at least? I cried for days.”

Zuri looked the woman in the eye. “Crying does no one any good at this point. I left two years ago, and she didn’t expect me to return. She moved on and in our tiny slice of the world, that is what people do, that’s all we can do. It does hurt to lose someone I once loved, but this is not a case of losing my love; we were kids.

“I’m not crying because Pira no longer needs my tears. She deserves vengeance upon those who grabbed her and killed her. Between you, me, and the wall, I am one of the few capable of bringing justice and of those few, the only one who gives a damn. I cannot hunt and take down her murderers while mourning though. I’ll cry later when all this business is done.”

“Big words, but no one can deliver what you’re saying,” she said.

“Take my hand,” Zuri said softly. “This is not Zuri getting his revenge or seeking Pira’s justice from her murderers. Their crimes are much deeper than one death. Somewhere not so far away there is a mass grave of their victims along with ledgers of money, land, and riches stolen from anyone who they decided was a target. Take my hand.”