Cast In Secret (27 page)

“No. It was a personal visit.”

Tiamaris shook his head. “You went alone?”

“I went with Severn.”

“Good. Forgive my interruption. You went at the request of Ybelline, and she informed you that one of the Tha’alani children had gone missing?”

“During the Festival, toward the end.”

“And Donalan Idis came up?”

“Not… precisely.”

“Which means not at all.”

She thought he could have at least had the grace to make a question of it. “She didn’t mention him, no.” Her hesitation was more marked. “I don’t know if they’re connected. The two missing children, I mean.”

“Ah. Among the Hawks, you have a custom. It’s called
betting.
I am willing to bet that they are.”

“What odds?”

“Pardon?”

She rolled her eyes. “Never mind. I wouldn’t take that bet. Did Sanabalis tell you about the Oracles?”

“You refer to Everly?”

She nodded.

“He mentioned it. He also mentioned that you… directed the picture somehow.”

“I was trying to figure out how to
talk
to him.”

“While he was in the middle of his vision?”

She shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“I’d also be willing to bet that those are the last thoughts of any number of people. Dead people,” he added.

“I caught that part.” She finished eating what was, she had to admit, a really good sandwich. “We’d better get going. I can’t afford to lose much more in the way of pay.”

The streets were pretty much the same streets, and the sun was low enough that she wouldn’t pass out from the heat, but walking was still tiring. On the other hand, she wasn’t bruised or bleeding, which counted for something as far as long, unpleasant walks were concerned. Tiamaris, by presence alone, kept people at bay; even if you didn’t know a Dragon on sight, you knew trouble when you saw it.

He said very little, and although she wanted to ask him a hundred questions, she was silent, as well, thinking about missing children, about a deaf Tha’alani boy, and about Oracles.

Thinking about anything, in fact, that was not Sergeant Kassan. But when Tiamaris escorted her to the open doors of the Halls of Law, Clint and Tanner were on duty. Clint’s wings rose slightly as he saw her.

“Kaylin!”

“I know. I’m late.”

“That, too.” He smiled. “We were beginning to get worried.”

“Betting worried?”

“We weren’t allowed to place bets.”

“What?”

“Corporal Handred did not think betting was appropriate.”

“And anyone listened?”

Clint winced. “Look, Kaylin, you should probably know – ” He stopped and looked at her companion. “Lord Tiamaris.”

Tiamaris inclined his head. “It was thought best that I return to active duty for the time being,” he said. “And part of that duty was escorting Kaylin to the Hawks.”

Clint lifted his halberd to allow them both to pass. “Hurry,” he whispered. Kaylin’s fingers brushed his flight feathers, and for once, he didn’t seem to notice.

To call the office
a bit tense
was to call a razor
a bit sharp
. Marcus wasn’t even sitting at his desk; he was
prowling
the room, and as Kaylin entered it, she could hear the thrum of his growl. But he was watching her as she rounded the corner.

“Kaylin.” He stopped pacing. In general, this was a good thing. In specific, she wasn’t so certain. His glance strayed to Tiamaris and remained fixed there.

Tiamaris, however, offered the sergeant a very proper bow. “Sergeant Kassan,” he said quietly.

Said sergeant glared at the Dragon for a little longer than was comfortable – for Kaylin, at any rate, as Tiamaris didn’t seem to notice – before he again looked at Kaylin.

She walked up to him, stopped in front of him, and bared her throat. But he wasn’t angry at her; he didn’t touch it. “There’s been a disturbance,” he told her gravely. “The Hawklord wishes to speak with you. He’s been waiting.”

“I’m sorry – I was tied up – ”

“At the Imperial Palace. Yes. I heard.”

“We all heard, dear,” Caitlin said, rising from a small mound of paper. “You’re looking a bit peaked.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Hmm.”

“I ate,” she added defensively. She looked around the crowded office, and added, “Where’s Severn?”

“Corporal Handred is with Teela and Tain,” Caitlin said, looking pointedly at the back of Marcus’s head. Kaylin edged away from Marcus and into the radius of Caitlin’s voice. “He wasn’t happy to leave, dear.”

“Why?”

“There was some concern about the length of your absence, given where you’d gone.”

“Oh.” She turned to Marcus and said, “I went to visit the Oracles, and after that, we went to the library. There wasn’t much danger. It’s not as if the books could jump up and swallow me.”

“And the roaring
Dragon
had nothing to do with you?”

“The… roaring Dragon… ” She turned to Tiamaris and gave him a very black glare.

“I said any Dragon could understand it,” he said mildly. “I do not recall saying that anyone else was rendered deaf.”

“He was a happy Dragon,” she said, wincing, as she turned back to the Leontine who could make her life a living hell. “And he wasn’t exactly in a position to do anyone any harm.”

Tiamaris covered his eyes with his hands, rubbing either side of his temple with his thumb and forefinger. “The Hawklord wishes to see us?”

“He made no mention of you,” Marcus snapped. But then, as if finally certain that by some unforeseen miracle Kaylin still had as many limbs as she’d left with, added, “But he’ll want to see you once he knows you’re here.”

“Where are Teela and Tain?”

“Investigating a double murder,” old Iron Jaw snapped. Seeing the look that instantly transformed her face, he softened his voice. “No, no children. A man and a woman.”

“Where?”

“Go see the Hawklord, Kaylin.”

“But – ”

“Now.”

Tiamaris, knowing how much she loved door-wards, preceded her up the winding circle of climbing steps. He stopped briefly at each landing to nod at the guards posted there before continuing, something that Kaylin usually failed to do. Then again, she was
usually
late, in trouble, and in enough of a hurry that polite and
unemployed
seemed synonymous.

But he kept his pace measured, and when they approached the door, he lifted his hand and placed it firmly against the ward. She felt the prickle of magic that would unlock it, but that was all. It wasn’t her hand that glowed a faint blue as the door-wards took the information they needed and processed it, dumping some of it into records and the rest, gods only knew where.

The doors swung inward, rolling slowly and silently to the sides as the rounded dome of the tower shed light in abundance across the floor – and the lone man who now occupied the Tower. His wings were folded at his back, and they were almost all she could see of him; he was studying an image in the mirror before him, and it clearly wasn’t his own.

“Lord Tiamaris.” He turned, gesturing, and the image in the mirror dissolved. “Kaylin.”

“Lord Grammayre,” Tiamaris replied, tendering a deep bow. Kaylin followed suit.

“Lord Sanabalis has been keeping you occupied,” the man who commanded the Hawks said quietly. She wasn’t sure whom he spoke to.

“He has,” Tiamaris replied, clearly not as uncertain as Kaylin.

“I trust you did nothing to endanger the Hawks while you were in his keeping.”

“No. Yes. I mean, I didn’t get us in trouble.” Kaylin knew whom he was referring to with that.

“Good. I believe we have enough trouble as is.” He was standing in the circle etched in stone on the floor. “While you were gone, two bodies were discovered near the merchants’ quarter. Not the foreign merchants’,” he added, knowing how exact her sense of geography was. “I would have sent you to investigate, but as you were otherwise occupied, sent Corporal Handred in your stead.”

“Has word come back?”

“Not precisely, but yes, I have received a preliminary report. They felt it was urgent.”

“Why?”

“The two – a middle-aged couple who owned a number of the buildings in the area – were found drowned.”

“They were drowned in the merchants’ quarter?”

“Apparently without the aid of water.”

She was silent for a long moment.

“There was no sign of a struggle – or rather, there were signs of flailing, as one might expect, but no bruising that could not be attributed to their own movements.”

“No bath – ”

“There was a bath, but it was empty.”

“Recently emptied?”

“Not according to the Corporal. The bodies do not appear to have been moved. They were not near the bath when they were discovered.”

“Who discovered them?”

“Their daughter. She was expecting them for lunch, and when they failed to join her, she went looking for them.” He paused. “There will be more information shortly.”

She nodded.

Tiamaris stepped forward. “I have some information for your classified records,” he said quietly. “I do not know if it is pertinent to the investigation at hand, but it may well become so.” He handed the Hawklord the crystal he had shown Kaylin in the Palace.

The Hawklord accepted it without comment. “Kaylin,” he said softly. “How much have you been told?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “I know what the Oracles fear. I know we have two weeks, if the Oracles can be trusted.”

“Then you know enough. You visited Evanton in Elani Street.”

She nodded again.

“We require you to visit him again. Ask the questions you deem wise. Fail to ask the questions that are ill-advised. Do you understand the import of this?”

“Off record.”

“Good.” His wings shifted; she heard the feathers brush against each other and looked up as he spread them. “I myself have a meeting to attend. I will not ask what transpired at the Palace until after the meeting.

“But, Kaylin, the words of the Oracles are
not
meant for public consumption. Is that clear?”

The words
no one listens to them, anyway
hovered briefly – and rashly – on her lips. She nodded instead. She’d seen what panic could do to a crowd, and she really didn’t want to see what it would do to a whole city.

“Red is waiting for the bodies. He’ll examine them when they arrive. The daughter was reluctant to part with the remains.”

Kaylin nodded again. It happened a lot – although why people thought the dead cared one way or the other, she’d never understood.

The dome of the Tower began to collapse to the sides as it opened. She watched the Hawklord take flight, envying him the freedom of the skies. Only when he was gone did she whisper a single word.

Water.

Elani Street had still not quite recovered from the excesses of Festival spending; although it was not yet evening, the streets were practically empty. Good for policing, bad for business. Severn had still not returned to the office by the time she’d come down from the Tower, and Tiamaris was sent as her partner.

“He won’t let you in,” she said quietly.

“He will let me into his store,” was the equally quiet reply.

“You’re a Dragon.”

“Yes. But I am also, for the foreseeable future, a Hawk. He will not dishonor the uniform.”

“You’re barely
wearing
a uniform.” His robes, however, did bear the Hawk, and it was not a small piece of embroidery, either.

“I am willing to make a small wager.”

Kaylin laughed. “I’m not.”

“Oh?”

“I wouldn’t bet my own money against a Dragon.”

“That’s odd.”

“What?”

“It seems a wise course of action – but you still, according to your office, seldom have any money of your own.”

“How much are you getting paid?”

“To work as a Hawk?”

She nodded.

“It is considered part of my service to the Court,” he replied.

“Which means ‘nothing.’”

He raised a brow.

“Well, add a small number to that, and you have what I’m getting paid. Meaning, it’s not my fault I’m broke.”

He smiled, and his eyes were golden, like the sun without the burning intensity. She walked in his shadow, tired but calmer somehow for his presence. Which, given he was a Dragon, said something; she’d puzzle out exactly what it said, and about whom, later.

Evanton’s door opened before she could ring the bell. Her hand was halfway to the pull and she froze at the sound of its little chimes. Evanton, still wizened and bent, frowned at Tiamaris for a moment longer than necessary, but he did open the door and get out of the way.

“I guess you heard,” she said quietly.

“I heard.” He shut the door firmly behind them, and then reached up and drew the curtains shut. “You need some sleep by the look of you.”

“I had a day of it.”

His look redefined the word
skeptical.
“I have water boiling.”

“For what?”

“Tea.”

“Oh. I ate.” Evanton was not much of a tea lover; he made tea for guests. Sometimes.

“Eat more.”

He looked, to Kaylin, older and wearier. “There were two deaths in the merchants’ quarter today.”

“Drowning deaths.”

She nodded.

“Without the benefit of water.”

And nodded again.

He closed his eyes and his shoulders slouched downward, as if he were surrendering to gravity. Or age. “Evanton?”

“I had so hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”

“But you thought it might?”

He nodded.

“You could have said something.”

“I did. I said there were no murders yet.”

“Why would two middle-aged merchants be worthy targets for a murder? And why, if they were, would someone be stupid enough to kill them in a way that practically screams magic?”

“All very good questions. Answers, however, would be better.” He waved her forward, and then stopped. “Lord Tiamaris,” he said gravely, “I am offering you the hospitality of my home
because
you wear the Hawk and I happen to respect it. I would have bet against the Emperor creating laws which in theory he can’t break, but I thought it was well done.