Free Melissa McShane by Melissa Proffitt

perfectly correct; he offered the tray to each of them in turn, properly starting with their guests. The glasses were filled with cool tea, with chunks of ice floating in each. Tiny rounds of sliced bread smeared with a dark substance sat on a plate in the middle of the tray. Dakariou and Giara each took one, Zerafine thought out of politeness rather than hunger. Zerafine took one as well and nodded to the man. “That will be all,” she said, exactly as if she’d told him to bring refreshments. Gerrard took a position by the wall and did his best to pretend to be furniture. Nacalia was nowhere in sight. Zerafine hoped she’d have the sense to stay still. The man bowed and withdrew.
    “Council liaison,” Zerafine said. “I met with some of the Council members this morning.
    What does your role entail?”
    “You’ve seen them?” Dakariou shook his head. “I truly am behind in my business, then. My
    only excuse is that you came upon us so suddenly. I throw myself upon your mercy.” His
    expression was so self-deprecatingly comical that Zerafine smiled.
    “I’m only interested in finding the truth as quickly as possible,” she said. “Your help will be invaluable.”
    “I hope so. The Council has instructed me to work with you, to report to them on your
    findings and provide any assistance they can offer. The idea is to streamline the process so you can spend your time on your investigations, not on endless meetings.”
    “Councilor Castinidou told me the two theories were that the apparitions are spirits escaped from Atenas’s courts, or figments of Sukman’s madness made manifest. We’ve also heard it said that these are a new kind of ghost, which I can assure you is not true.”
    “ Tokthelis Berenica said the same,” Dakariou said.
    “And you didn’t believe her.”
    Dakariou flushed, but smiled at her. “I don’t wish to speak ill of such a respected member of our community,” he began, “so please forgive me for my bluntness. The tokthelis ’s honesty—in fact that of all of the theloi of Atenas—is well known, but her response to this crisis has been to sit back and watch events unfold. You must know that’s why you were brought here to
    investigate; Berenica should be our investigator, but she will not, or cannot, look into the problem herself.”
    “And you believed her assertions were based on...what? Wishful thinking?”
    “Rather, assumptions based on hearsay and secondhand reports.” Dakariou took a sip from
    his glass. “As I said, I would rather not call her character into question.”
    And yet that’s precisely what you’ve done , Zerafine thought. But his assessment of Berenica’s character matched her own. She was beginning to like this man.
    “What do you make of tokthelos Genedirou?” she asked.
    “Again, I’d prefer not to speak ill—”
    “Dakariou, please don’t stand on ceremony with me,” she asked. “Let me make this easier
    for you. Whether or not Sukman is involved, Genedirou intends to turn the situation to his advantage. He’s been encouraging people to believe that worshipping Sukman—better yet,
    donating to His temple—will keep the apparitions away. He has some method of banishing them that he uses to bolster his position and improve Sukman’s standing within the Pantheon, at least here in Portena. He probably doesn’t wish anyone harm, but he certainly has no stake in ending this, as you called it, rash of appearances.”
    Dakariou leaned back and gave her a smile, a real one, not the flirtatious half-glances he’d been using on her since she came in. “You’ve spoken to him,” he said.
    “I have. I’m guessing you haven’t had much cooperation from him.”
    “Not in the least. His interest is in using me as a way to get at the Council, to improve his secular as well as ecclesiastical standing.”
    “To his credit, I think he’s doing this as much for the sake of his god as for his own status.
    He doesn’t seem to have diverted any