Bouquet ~ Twenty Five

[annarti.livejournal.com]

Chapter~ 1517
Total~ 41 682

After a two week boat journey downstream to Ruzaka and another three weeks on horseback to the coast, the danger surrounding the mission had become considerably less potent. Flannel Flower just wanted to get to the city so she could get it all over and done with. When the hill finally fell away below her towards the ocean, she was hit by a sudden wave of nostalgia.

Sinazi reminded her of Suza, only everything was so much bigger. In place of the Great Lake was the wide, deep blue expanse of ocean. She’d heard of it before from others who had been here, and imagined it to be much like her old home, but the salty, tangy ocean made the Great Lake look like a puddle. It seemed to go on forever, and even from up here, she could see the white-crested waves crashing on the beach, much bigger than the ankle-deep ripples that washed over the lake.

The city itself crept up the mountainside as Suza did, with the palace overlooking everything. In place of Suza’s eucalypts, enormous tropical trees towered over the city, concealing its buildings almost completely.

Flannel Flower grinned and tapped Grevillea’s flanks to urge her down towards the beach, taking in the sights of the city as she went.

Contrary to every other city she had been to, the richest people seemed to live near the palace, and the poor by the beach. Flannel Flower grinned broadly as she rode through the richer districts. The houses were built as big, sturdy stone boxes with flat rooves, but they were far from boring. Every house was painted with brightly coloured murals, some with macaws and tigers flying through dark green leaves, others with random swirls and splashes of colour in a beautiful, formless pattern that Flannel Flower could have stared at for hours. The people eating lunch on their rooves, legs dangling over the edge, waved at her as she admired their murals.

The city changed dramatically when she passed under the wall that separated the rich from the poor. The people waved at her from under big sheets of cloth strung between trees or propped up with fallen branches.

Sinazi was a city ravaged by tropical cyclones; if a house wasn’t built to be permanent, it was very, very temporary. There was no point in going halfway in between, as the people here had obviously learnt.

She rode Grevillea down to the beach, hooves in the sand as the waves washed around them. the wind seemed to constantly blow in from the sea here, pleasantly warm but still fresh as she breathed in the salty air.

‘Wow,’ she whispered as she let her breath out. She twisted round to look up at Sinazi, then turned back to the sea. ‘I’ve crossed the empire. How many people can say that?’ she asked Grevillea, patting the mare on her neck. ‘Come on, girl. We need to find an inn or something.’



The Sinazi palace, where the investigators did their work, was an impenetrable fortress, and had been since the queen’s death. Even just walking past it, Flannel Flower could feel the eyes of the guards on her, and see at least five arrows cocked in her direction.

It was so impenetrable, in fact, that the investigators and everyone else who traditionally worked there had been ordered out to continue their operations elsewhere. The investigators were easy enough, in a large building that looked like it may have been a stable in a past life, but had now been surrounded by city.

She came back later that night with her lock pickers and fossicked through drawers and cupboards for anything to do with the Sea Snake case. There was a lot of it, but Flannel Flower couldn’t say how much of it would be useful.

There was a large map of Sinazi on the back wall of the stable-come-investigator haunt, with pins stuck in it for each of the Sea Snake’s victims. Completely useless in deciphering where the assassin lived, of course. Even if Shizaaqa wasn’t the only one who gave orders, even if she was freelance, the locations of the victims meant nothing.

There were rather a number of pins though, and from Flannel Flower’s own experience, she guessed Hibiscus had been working under Shizaaqa for maybe four years, not much longer than herself.

She found files on each of the victims and just how they died. The very earliest ones—dated four years ago, as Flannel Flower had guessed—were bitten by a sea snake on the neck, and the snake was left in their room as a calling card. Now though, most victims were shot, still in the neck, by an arrow dipped in sea snake venom, sometimes while they slept, but most often while they were awake, working at home, playing with the kids, sometimes even at work.

There was only ever one arrow, an example of which was displayed on the rear wall. Black and white bands were painted down its shaft, each about the width of three fingers. It had a white painted steel tip and fletching made of white feathers. Seagull feathers, the reports said, nothing unusual in a seaside city.

The assassin’s sharp shooting led the investigators to believe the Sea Snake was a black horse rider, and therefore male. Flannel Flower rolled her eyes with an irritated sigh. ‘Bad assumption, ladies,’ she murmured quietly.

She picked the arrow off the wall to get a closer look at it. There was no paint on the feathers and no black on the arrow head, so Hibiscus must make her own, painting the shaft first then attaching the fletching and head. Flannel Flower respected her for that. She had always rolled her eyes at archers who didn’t make their own arrows. They seemed fake, somehow.

From her exploring of the city earlier in the day, Flannel Flower knew that in the richer districts at least, white feathers were not used as jewellery. Sinazi people preferred bright colours of macaws and lorikeets to adorn their hair and clothes, not plain, boring white. She would have to check the archery range tomorrow, but she guessed that seagull feathers were only used in fletching.

Was it too much to hope that Hibiscus shot down her own seagulls for her arrows as well? Or did she just buy them from somewhere in the market? She noted it down as another thing to check out; who supplied seagull feathers to the merchants at the market, and who shot down the gulls on the beach.

She had to have target practice somewhere. Another thing to check at the archery range, anyone who might be female. Suss out the homes in the upper city that had room for a small archery range out the back. Head out into the rainforest on the outskirts of the city, maybe, and of course, seagulls on the beach.

Flannel Flower tapped her charcoal stick against her jaw in thought. Was she pretentious enough to live in a house with a hibiscus painted in the mural? She wished she could talk to Fern again to ask her some of these things, since she had met Hibiscus before. If her search for the assassin began to draw on too long, she might have to send a letter back up to Assiraz to get Fern down here.

She stopped tapping her jaw and stared at her notes. Send a letter. Letters. ‘Gods above, the answer’s been staring you in the face,’ she muttered, scratching the word ‘Houses’ onto her pad and underlining it twice. Who came in to pick up letters for Hibiscus? Was she a local or did she have an accent?

The investigators had just about exhausted the possibilities of the sea snake itself. There was no record kept anywhere of who had bought the snakes, and the investigators had questioned every snake salesman in the city. Out of this, they found two archers who owned snakes, neither of them black horses. They were locked up anyway, and a week later, the Sea Snake had taken another victim.

‘Either she’s arrogant,’ Flannel Flower murmured, ‘or she really doesn’t get out much.’ The fact that she had made a name for herself in Sinazi, instead of laying low and making all her kills appear accidental, or even all done by different people, told her Hibiscus was definitely arrogant.

‘Maybe she does have a hibiscus mural,’ she mused. ‘I would, especially if I already had a hibiscus tattoo.’

She yawned widely and stuffed her writing equipment back in her pockets, then stood and stretched her arms over her head. Before she left she grabbed a spare dark brown investigator’s uniform from the cupboard in the corner, figuring it would come in handy for questioning the Houses.

She left the investigators’ stable feeling confident. She had enough information to work with now, enough to ask some questions and search for the answers. With her tiny bit of knowledge about the Sea Snake that the investigators didn’t have, she already felt far ahead of them.

Comments

[drazzi.livejournal.com]

Although the investigating and searching part is interesting, I'm just so desperate to get through it and to the IMPORTANT PARTS! XDDD So short comment.

[annarti.livejournal.com]

I was the same~ when I was writing it XDDD I'm holding you in suspenders! >DDD

[ladylight.livejournal.com]

The fact that she had made a name for herself in Sinazi, instead of laying low and making all her kills appear accidental, or even all done by different people, told her Hibiscus was definitely arrogant.

... but that was what the Kris did, wasn't it? Make a name for herself and kill everyone in a trademark way? Does Flanny really think of herself as arrogant, or just 'bloody good'? XD

if a house wasn’t built to be permanent, it was very, very temporary.
-- love that detail, too!

I WANT MY DINNER, NARTI! T_T

[annarti.livejournal.com]

Oh she's different to all those other famous assassins. Totally different. No similarities at all, nope. Too good for that X3

I WANT MY DINNER TOO, BUT I'M REPLYING TO COMMENTS! T_T

[shanra.livejournal.com]

*is half-way through the chapter, is suddenly struck with a thought* What if Shizaaqa has given Hibiscus similar information?

I love Krissie. Even if she calls herself Flannel Flower now. :p I love the little searching details and the description of Sinazi. *wants to move to Sinazi even with the cyclones*

Have I mentioned yet how I love how you make each of these cities actually appear different and separate and in possession of their own identity? *loves muchly*

[annarti.livejournal.com]

It's more that I've always called her Flannel Flower, so it's more comfortable to call her that in the story XD;

If I were Kazinian, I would SO live in Sinazi. Cyclones, bah! Tropical house with snazzy murals on the walls! Who could ask for more?

I love the idea of having differnt characters for the cities, I think because all the cities in Australia do. Not quite as pronounced as Kazin, but it's made me always love the idea X3