Resenting the Hero (23 page)

Mulroney snorted. “Aye, I've heard of that,” he said. “A lot of aristocrats get them, but of course it doesn't usually come to anything. But I don't think a religious sacrifice is what this is all about, though no doubt we're supposed to think it is. More likely the ringleader is using some of these old fanatics to do his dirty work. I don't imagine it would be difficult to turn that sort of person on to another ‘mission.' ” Mulroney picked up another paper from the collection on his desk. “Someone saw the same carriage leaving High Scape by the west gate the night Lord Shintaro disappeared. We've tracked the wagon some distance, and we know it's going west and south.” The general direction of Flown Raven and Shina Lake and a dozen other major sites. “We've also started asking questions about the person most likely to be designated Lord Shintaro's heir, a cousin of his by the name of Alcina Mass. Infamous for her gambling, as well as her lack of skill in it. We haven't gotten far with her yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if she had a few heavy debts hanging around her neck.” He dropped the paper on the desk. “Flown Raven and Shina Lake are the obvious places to start.”

He was the expert. I had to assume he knew what he was doing. “What's the next step?”

“Send some Runners to Shina Lake and Flown Raven.”

“I'm going with them,” I announced.

Oddly enough, Mulroney didn't seem at all surprised. “Don't be ridiculous.”

I raised a brow at him. “I beg your pardon?”

“What do you know about investigating a kidnapping?”

Like that had anything to do with anything. “He's my Source.”

“I don't care what he is to you.” He shoved all the papers on his desk into a pile. “I'm not letting you anywhere near this.”

“I won't get in your way,” I promised him. “I'll only look around and ask a few questions. There's no harm in that.”

Mulroney muttered something. Highly complimentary, I was sure. “There's a hell of a lot of harm in it,” he snapped, “if you start asking the wrong sort of people the wrong sort of questions. Lord Shintaro is the one they'll want to keep in one piece. They won't care about
your
health.”

“If I die, so does Karish,” I reminded him. “Everyone knows that.”

That slowed him down not a jot. “They don't have to kill you to incapacitate you, do they? If you're lucky they'll only leave you bound and gagged in a cellar somewhere. But if you irritate them they might gouge out your eyes or chop off a few body parts. That'll do the trick and won't do a lick of harm to Lord Shintaro.”

I tried to keep the expression of disgust off my face, ignoring the lovely little images of torture and mutilation that were dancing through my head. “I can be of use to you,” I said. “I can feel where Karish is. When we're within a certain distance, I mean. If he's in Shina Lake or Flown Raven, I'll lead you straight to him.”

He looked at me with hard eyes. “You're a good liar,” he commented flatly.

Hell. I hated lying, so when I did it I should at least be good at it. Good enough to fool a stranger, at least.

“If I didn't know for a fact that wasn't true, I might have bought it.”

What did he mean, know it for a fact? It was a very popular myth.

“I've lived in High Scape all my life. Known a lot of Pairs.”

Oh.
“If you don't let me go with them, I'll just follow them,” I threatened him.

“Try it, and I'll toss you into a cell until this is finished.”

That shocked me. “You can't imprison me without just cause,” I objected.

“All right. I'll just hand you over to the Triple S council, poor little distraught Shield that you are. But whatever I have to do, I'm not going to let your thirst for heroics endanger Lord Shintaro.”

Thirst for heroics? Son of a bitch.
“Do you understand the bond works both ways?” I asked him. “If Karish dies, so do I. That's the fear that I'm living under right now.”

This had no softening effect on Mulroney. “So I guess it's time for that stoicism you Shields are so famous for,” he said. “And you'll appreciate why I want this job done right. There's no room for amateurs.” He waved a dismissive hand at me. “Go home. We'll contact you when we find him.”

I left the office. Obviously I would get no help from him. I would have to manage something on my own.

I slipped through the chaos of the common area and headed for the exit. Aiden stepped in behind me. It was a fortunate thing that he had noticed my leaving because I wouldn't have called to him. I had, shamefully enough, forgotten he was there.

“What's happened?” he asked as soon as we were back on the street.

So I told him in a few short sentences. “The hell with him,” I muttered, referring to Mulroney. “How dare he tell me where I can and cannot go? I'll go to Flown Raven whenever I damn well please, and it pleases me to go now.”

“To investigate Lord Shintaro's disappearance.”

“Of course.”

“Because you can't trust the Runners to do the job properly.”

The tone was mild, but the words jerked me to a stop. “What?”

He stopped, too. He faced me, farther away from me than he usually stood, his arms crossed. An uncharacteristic posture for him. “Do you really think you can do the Runners' job better than they can?”

Of course not. Not really. It was just . . .
“I can help,” I said through my teeth, “but they're treating me like a useless idiot.”

“It has nothing to do with intelligence, Dunleavy,” he said, his voice filled with an expression of patience that was just a little too obvious. “Every job requires training and experience. No matter how intelligent a person is, they can't step into someone else's job and do it as well as a professional. Except for you, of course. We all know the only reason you're not solving crimes and setting bones and writing wills is that you're too busy being a Shield.”

Where had that come from? I had never said I could do everything, and I certainly didn't think it. On the other hand, my accompanying the Runners wouldn't do any harm. I wasn't a fool, and I would have done what I was told. “I am going to Flown Raven, and there's nothing yon noble captain can do about it.” I started on down the street.

“Lord Shintaro's Shield isn't going to get anywhere poking her nose into everyone's business in Flown Raven.”

He had a point. “So I'll take off the braid.”

He looked stunned. “What?”

“I'll take off the braid,” I said with a nonchalance I was far from feeling. Take off my braid? Every coat, cloak, shirt, blouse, and dress I owned had the white braid sewn into the left shoulder. I had waited years for the right to wear the braid. It meant something, and I had the ridiculous fear that I would feel naked without it.

Legally, it wasn't the best of ideas. It wasn't exactly illegal not to wear the braid, but should a Shield go about without her braid and then do something dangerous while under the influence of music, I imagined the authorities would be a lot less lenient. Which was only right.

Still, if it was necessary, I would do it. I'd been naked before.

“You'll need new clothes,” said Aiden.

“So I'll get some.”

“They'll wonder why a Shield is getting clothes without the braid.”

“They can wonder away.”

“All right, then, how much money have you got?”

What a stupid question. “None, of course.”

“Then how are you going to pay for food, lodging, horses, tolls, and whatever else in your guise as a regular person?”

I opened my mouth to utter a cutting, witty response. I closed my mouth as I realized I was an idiot.

Aiden's expression was now one of annoyingly amused compassion. “It's not your fault, my dear,” he assured me. “You were raised to be ignorant.”

I could hit him for that, couldn't I?

“I suppose I should stop resenting Lord Shintaro for being an aristocrat and having such an easy life,” Aiden said with a reluctant smile. “Yours has been much the same. You've never had to worry about how you're going to earn your food or shelter, or paying taxes, or what you're going to do if you're injured or ill and you can't work anymore.”

What did that have to do with anything? “Is there a point to this little lecture?”

He shrugged. “No one knows everything, Dunleavy, not even you, and no one can do everything. Mulroney can't be a Shield, and you can't be a Runner. Let the Runners do their job. You concentrate on being a Shield.”

“I can't be a Shield without a Source, can I?” I said sharply.

“That's not exactly what I meant.”

“So what do you mean?”

“I'm not sure.” He pulled at his lower lip. “It's all pretty weak, though, what they're doing. Four fellows rent a carriage that's going in the direction of Flown Raven, and they all flock off after them.”

“And the Reanists in Shina Lake,” I reminded him. “And as you are always saying, Karish is an aristocrat.”

“If either the Reanists or the heir were interested in him, they would have killed him. Abducting him makes no sense. It takes too much effort, and the risk of getting caught is much higher.”

“So what are you thinking?”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me close, lowering his voice as though he were revealing a secret. “It's that crazy Source from Middle Reach.”

“What?”

“You said yourself he wrote to Lord Shintaro several times. He obviously really wants him.”

I didn't want to hear this, because I'd thought it myself. “Karish refused.”

“So maybe this fellow decided to convince him.”

I shot him a derisive look. “By kidnapping him?”

“It makes more sense than the other two theories,” Aiden declared. “Reanists or a rival heir would want him dead. This Creol character probably wants to use him for something.”

“How would kidnapping Karish convince him to do anything?” I demanded.

“Maybe they've kidnapped him only to get him to Middle Reach, to talk to him. They might have him living in the lap of luxury once they've got him out there.”

“But what would Creol want with Karish?” I asked, and the answer came to me on its own. As a Source without a Shield, Creol was impotent, with no place anywhere. So maybe he wanted influence. A favored Source, a future duke, Karish would have a lot of influence over a lot of people. I wondered again about the nature of Creol's association. “I can't see Creol kidnapping Karish. It's too crazy.”

“I thought he was supposed to be crazy.”

“Not that crazy. And that's only rumor.”

“You would know better than I. I've never met the man.”

I had, but only for a moment. Did it really mean anything, that one shared glance? Probably not. The glance I'd exchanged with Karish had had a lot more weight to it, and I still hadn't known a thing about him.

“You can't go with the Runners,” Aiden said. “The captain's threatened to toss you in jail if he thinks you're interfering. Everyone's going to Flown Raven. No one's going to Middle Reach. Don't you think it's a least worth looking into?”

I didn't know. It was all so confusing and insubstantial. The jealous heir seemed a more reasonable explanation, but the letters from Creol were unsettling.

I hated thinking. “It's just so farfetched,” I complained.

“It's all farfetched,” he retorted. “The very idea of Lord Shintaro being abducted is farfetched. But here we are. And there are threats from a few different sources, and no one's even considering the one in Middle Reach.”

Because they thought it wasn't worth considering. If they were even aware of it. And what did they know, really? They
were
fixing on Flown Raven for very little reason. Weren't they?

“I mean, Middle Reach is at least a possibility, don't you think?” Aiden said. “Shouldn't all the possibilities be considered?”

The totally irrelevant thought that Aiden was really quite wonderful trickled into my slowly churning brain. He was no friend of Karish's, but there he was trying to figure out the best way to bring Karish back to safety. I'd have to do something amazing for him when this was all over.

“And Middle Reach is so much closer than Flown Raven. We could be there in a couple of days, look around, and be back before the Runners are even halfway to Flown Raven. We could probably catch up with them if we had to.”

I cocked a brow at him. “We?” I asked. Not that I had a problem with him coming with me—I would like the company—but I hadn't thought of it. He had a life in High Scape, and it wasn't fair to ask him to risk it by getting involved in Karish's murky personal life.

“I will provide you with an excuse to be in Middle Reach, in case anyone asks,” Aiden explained. “I have family there. And Ryan and his friends can help us look around. They probably even know something about that association of Creol's.”

I didn't like the idea of leaving High Scape right then. I felt it was the only place where I could possibly learn anything from the Runners. But Aiden had been right to imply that I was redundant there. I could ask questions, sure, but of whom that the Runners hadn't already questioned? And what would I ask them? I couldn't think of anything more than “Did you kidnap Karish?” and, if the answer was in the affirmative, “Where did you put him?”