She got only one patient that day. As fast as those who’d heard her tale ran off
to look for rats, others took their place. And then, inevitably, the governor’s
soldiers came. She was surprised they hadn’t appeared sooner. Surely one of
their informants had sped to the palace as soon as he had heard her story, and
that would have been shortly after she’d come to the bazaar.
The sergeant of the soldiers questioned her first, and then she was marched to
the garrison, where a captain interrogated her. Afterwards, a colonel came in,
and she had to repeat her tale. And then, after sitting in a room for at least
two hours, she was taken to the governor himself. The handsome youth,
surprisingly, didn’t detain her long. He seemed to have checked out her
movements, starting with Doctor Nadeesh. He’d worked out a timetable between the
moment she left Shoozh’s house and the moment she came home. So, her mother had
also been questioned.
A soldier had seen two of the Raggah running away; their presence was verified.
‘Well, Masha,’ the governor said. ‘You’ve stirred up a rat’s nest,’ and he
smiled at his own joke while the soldiers and courtiers laughed.
‘There is no evidence that there was any jewel,’ he said, ‘aside from the story
this Benna told, and he was dying from venom and in great pain. My doctor has
examined his body, and he assures me that the swellings were spider bites. Of
course, he doesn’t know everything. He’s been wrong before.
‘ But people are going to believe that there was indeed a jewel of great value,