“So, Iowana sold sister Esmeralda to the Iiamor bandits” Aina shakes her head in disbelief. “But why did she bother?”.

Peter Fågel spins the beer tankard on the table. Aina has ordered apple cider, just as the last time they visited The Elm’s Inn. She is drinking her second glass. It is a beautiful summer day. Golden sunshine flows through the Inn’s painted window glass and floods the premises in all the colors of the rainbow.

“She thought it was a clever way to cause even more confusion. But by doing so she also put us on the shomar-trail, which led us to the Iiamor-connection. You know, I became suspicious when I heard that the chef poured shomar extract in his soup to rid it of the River disease. I have always heard that it’s enough to boil the water to get rid of the River disease. But the chef actually didn’t pour shomar in his soup to get rid of the disease. He did it because he was curious if there still was some Iiamor blood flowing in the veins of the Mull family members. The plan was to spare those family members that got sick of the soup. By getting sick they would prove to be more Iiamor than Valtar. He was so obsessed about his belonging and didn’t want to risk killing any Iiamor’s. Even if they wore the surname Mull“.

“I think we that we have everything we need” the sheriff rounds off the interrogation. “Milady” he says with a nod at lady Eaena “If you don’t have any objections; I would like to bring Lady Iowana and mister Iain with me to Castle Mull and then on to Holmstad. They will have to face justice at the royal court. The crimes that they just have admitted are high treason, murder and conspiracy. At least two of those acts are considered crimes against her Majesty.”

Eaena seems to contemplate on the sheriffs words. Then she talks. “I agree. But I have one request. I wish that both will face their punishment here in our tower, among their people. They are Iiamor’s and have commit crimes, not only against the Valtar’s, but also against the very heart of our folk – our pride.”

The sheriff nods thoughtfully. “I will ask the Majesty if such an agreement is possible. I cannot give any promises, but I will do my best to fulfill your wish, Lady Eaena.”

Eaena knocks two times with her staff on the floor. The door opens and the two guards steps in. “So be it” she says with a grave voice “Guards, bring these two to the confinement. They will leave with sheriff Edwald later today. I think that our other guests wish to leave now. Ensure that they have everything that they need for their journey home.”

The two guards steps forward to lady Iowana and chef Iain and escorts them back to the door. Just as they are about to leave the room, Peter Fågel suddenly asks “Lady Iowana, just one more question; The girl at the healers hut, what happened to her?”

“But the one causing trouble wasn’t Theohilde. It was Ragvig, that little rat. Wherever I was following Theohilde, Ragvig was there, sneaking around in the shadows like a stupid clumsy cat. He must have believed that Theohilde was the murderer because he followed her wherever she went, recording every step and move in a scroll, like some … No, I can’t find any words for it. What an idiot! I am sure he even shadowed her when she went on the loo, recording her …”

Now Iain is halted by an increasingly edgy Eaena, who with a red face and high voice orders him to stop waffling. “Iain, if you have something to say, then please say it, but don’t waste our time with that drivel. Come to the point with your story so that we can end this and go on.”

Iain seems to have taken no offense. He is rather a bit amused by her emotional eruption. “Milady” he says with a theatrical gesture “I beg your pardon. I will come to the end. So, I finally lost it … I was peaking through the keyhole in Theohilde’s door to see what she was doing, when Ragvig suddenly caught me in the act. I guess I could have came up with some idiotic reason why I was spying on Theohilde, but I didn’t want to. I rather killed that rat. So I beat him in the head with a wooden club that was hanging there as decoration on the wall. Ironically, it was one of the ceremonial Iiamor clubs that once were stolen from our people by the Valtar’s. I believed that I could silence him quickly and get rid of the corpse. But he had a thick head, I give him that. He started screaming and rumbling around like crazy. I had to hit him once more. Then, suddenly, Theohilde was standing there in the door opening, screaming like a stabbed pig. I realized that I was done for if I stayed one more second in the corridor. I had to run and leave the castle faster than an oiled flash before all hell broke lose.”

“Anyhow. Theohilde read the book and began to put the pieces together, one by one. When she thought that she understood how everything tied in, she returned the book to mister Fågel. And she wrote him a note, telling him that she would explain everything soon. But she never told him that it was Gunnar that stole the book. She didn’t want any shadow to fall on him after his death. She continued her investigation until she felt that she had enough evidence to present to mister Fågel. And then, last night, when she felt ready to visit him and tell him about her suspicions, she suddenly heard a rumbling sound outside her room. She opened the door and saw Iain and Ragvig fighting in the corridor. Iain, maybe you can tell us the rest?” He addresses the chef without even looking at him.

It seems like Iain is starting to lose interest in the questioning. He waves back and forth with his arms and throws a quick glance at the beautiful Iowana. But her face doesn’t express whatever she is thinking. “Okay” he finally says “I had been shadowing Theohilde since the death of Gunnar. I wanted to see what she was up to and maybe I had to kill her before she caused any trouble.”

“But I just don’t get it. How could Gunnar find the connection between the Iiamor’s and Castle Mull before he stole the book from mister Fågel?” the sheriff asks bemusedly.

“Oh, that’s easy” Morgan Mull answers. “Gunnar worked as librarian in the royal library a couple of years when he was young. He didn’t do a military career like me, and father was worried about him, just hanging around in the castle doing nothing at all. He wanted Gunnar to learn an occupation, so he sent him to the queen who put him at work in the library. Gunnar must have been quite interested in reading about our family in the chronicle, can’t blame him, so he probably did it there during his time in Holmstad.

And coming back to the castle he must have been talking to people in the village about what he’d read about our past. Someone must have told him about how the Iiamor’s were expelled from their former land. So the engagement between our … well, old … father and the young miss Iowana here must have made him somewhat suspicious. It is sad for him and all of us that no one listened to his warnings. Our father didn’t listen. And I … I will accuse myself the rest of my life for not paying his words any attention.”

“Yes I think that we can figure the rest of the story” the sheriff says grimly.

“Theohilde told us that Gunnar had stopped her on the way from her fathers chamber. He was eager to talk with her. He whispered something about a conspiracy and that he would tell her more next morning in the glen by the lake. He told her that he had found something in the book that made him suspicious about the whole situation, but that his father didn’t want to listen. He probably had planned to talk with her and mister Fågel there at the same time.

So, when Theohilde was on her way to leave the castle she found Gunnar’s dead body with the book in his hands. She immediately knew that if she would be found there by his dead body all suspicions would fall on her. So she took the book from him and left. Not late thereafter Gunnar was found by the maid. Theohilde read the book on her room. She didn’t feel that she could talk with Morgan. He was already too upset by Gunnar’s death and suspicious against her. She also didn’t feel that she could talk with her father. He didn’t listen to Gunnar. Why should he then listen to her?”

“So you stabbed Gunnar in his back with Lord Dagbard’s knife to make it appear like someone of us in the family did it?” Morgan snarls behind dogged teeth.

“Well, yes of course” Iain answers with a cheerful voice. “Wasn’t I clever?” He doesn’t wait for an answer. “I was just about to nab the book from the dead mans hands when I was surprised by footsteps in the hall. So I hurried back into my kitchen. If I had stayed one second longer I would have been caught. But I saw who it was that came walking there in the hall. I could see it through the keyhole on the kitchen door. It was Theohilde. And she went straight towards the corpse. But she didn’t scream or make any noise. I just heard her grub around for a while and then return with hasty steps through the hall to disappear up the stairs to her room. A short moment later one of the maids found the dead man and began screaming and crying like a little child. I came out in the hall, ‘alerted’ by the action there. I thought that there were still a chance to pinch the book. But it was already gone. It must have been that Mull woman that took it.”

“The note said something like this:

Mister Fågel. I have some information and some suspicions that might be of interest for you. This information will change everything. I think that there is a conspiracy against my family. But you have to meet me tomorrow morning before breakfast in the grove by the lake where we can speak freely. A friend. Or something like that.”

The grove, Peter Fågel thinks, probably where I met the children.

“Now I knew the time was short” Iain continues “I had to stop him before he met you or I had to get rid of both of you. Luckily for you my friend, I managed to catch him before he left the the castle the next morning. I had been waiting in the hall the whole night when I saw him coming there, sneaking in the hall. I crept up behind him with a knife that I had stolen from Lord Dagbard’s treasury … I have to tell you this, because I’m especially proud of that part. I stole the knife when I helped Zweger polish candlesticks in the treasury several weeks earlier. Zweger turned his back on me and I just nabbed it. Easy like that. I thought that it might come handy some day. And boy, was I right? Right?”

Iain starts talking with a loud clear voice.

“He gave us a good opportunity to make things worse, the poor fool. Without even realizing it, he signed his own death sentence by stealing your book. I came to the room when he was done with his work and searched it. It was just shortly after you both … mister Fågel and Zweger … had left it. The book already was gone by then. I was in a somewhat complicated situation and I had to act fast. What should I do? Should I walk away to his room and confront him, or should I shadow him to see what he was pottering about? I decided the latter alternative.

After an hour or so I saw him appearing in the hall. I waited a moment. And then I sneaked up after him. He went straight back to your room, mister Fågel. It is true what they say, that the offender always returns to the crime scene. When I saw him leaving your room for the second time that evening, I went in and checked it. Again. And what did I find? I found a little letter to you mister Fågel. He must have believed that you would return to that room. Ha. He probably didn’t know where you had been accommodated after the burglary.”

“I didn’t tell anyone because it is a quite hard accusation to come with without any evidence” he rounds off his story.

The others are quiet for a while. Then Zweger breaks the silence, saying “Now you have your evidence. But what I don’t understand is how you” he turns back to Iowana “planned to ruin Lord Dagbard’s life by faking an abduction? What was your plan?” Iowana has a proud expression when she starts telling how she had planned to destroy the Mull family. “Well, the plan was that everyone would start to suspect each other for the abduction. So to say, believe that it was an inside job. And what I understood from what my crony here” she points at Iain “told me, it went well. The two numbskulls … sorry mister Mull, but that is what you are … Morgan and Theohild immediately rushed on each others throats. Like two hungry bloodswines.

But Gunnar was a different case. As it seemed he had discovered something about our past that made him suspicious. One evening Iain found him stealing a key from the office. He gave Iain some lame excuse what he had been busying himself with there by the key rack, but Iain immediately knew that he was plotting something. Something bad for us. Gunnar never realized that he was caught in the act and carried on his plan, to steal the Mull family chronicle from you mister Fågel.”