Part 19 (2/2)
The Dragon Lord didn't answer; Red was an old hand. He took the hint. He did open eyelids, and he did the same cursory examination on all the corpses. This took no time. While he worked, with the occasional aside to the mirror, he asked Tiamaris questions; Tiamaris answered. He then walked over to the table on which his various tools lay. ”This,” he said, ”is not going to be a short day.”
”Will it require more than one?” Tiamaris asked.
”If it doesn't require another three, it'll be a miracle. Not a small one, either.”
”And that,” Tiamaris said, turning toward the door, ”is our invitation to leave.”
”Where's Maggaron?” Kaylin asked Tara after the impromptu morgue's doors were firmly shut behind them.
The Avatar blinked, and then said, ”He is in his room.”
”Awake or asleep?”
”It is hard to tell. I believe he is awake; he is neither moving nor speaking, but his eyes appear to be open.”
”What color are they?”
”Blue.”
She glanced at Severn. ”Are you certain it's safe to leave him here?”
”Yes.” Tara frowned, and then added, ”Perhaps I should ask for clarification before I answer. Safe for him or safe for us?”
”Either.”
”It is safe for us. The Shadows cannot breach this Tower.”
”His name?”
”Even if they find purchase here through use of his name, you'll sense the struggle. If you're too far away to intercede-and Lord Tiamaris feels that no point in the City is too far away, regardless of fief boundaries-it will not be safe for him, because I will have to kill him. Neither I nor my Lord will be in any significant danger.”
”Then I'm going to leave him here.”
”I believe Mejrah wishes to speak with you about him.”
”Can it wait until tomorrow?”
”Why?”
”Because we're in theory here to investigate the deaths of those seven women, and I'm much more confident of being useful there than I am of talking to strangers near a border that's teeming with Shadow.”
”You were of critical use yesterday.”
Tiamaris, however, said, ”It can wait one day. You, however, will be on your own. I will take Lord Sanabalis and Morse. If you require a map of the fiefs-”
”We don't, if there's mirror access within the fief.”
”There are...very few mirrors in much of the fief.”
Tara said, ”If you will come this way?”
Not even Sanabalis stayed behind. Sanabalis, however, chose to wait outside in the Tower grounds, and headed there immediately, asking only Tiamaris's permission to do so. Kaylin found the interactions of the two Dragon Lords interesting; Sanabalis was obviously still fond of Tiamaris, but he was not quite at home in the Tower; he was willing to enter it-after receiving an almost formal invitation each time-but he was never going to be a visitor who outstayed his welcome.
If it wasn't Kaylin's second home, it had joined her list of possible candidates.
”This way” sadly, returned them to a very familiar mirror-a flat, clear pool of water that lay in the ground. Tara smiled in what Kaylin presumed was supposed to be an encouraging away. ”We're not accessing anything that the normal mirrors through the Tower can't access, so it should be safe.”
Famous last words. Kaylin nodded anyway as Tiamaris, with no warning at all, roared. Clearly he'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, although rumor had it that Dragons didn't actually need sleep. She wondered if that was accurate, or if it had been spread by the Barrani. The roar, which left ringing in the ears, also left a s.h.i.+mmering, large image across the whole of the water's surface.
”You will be familiar with these streets?” Tiamaris asked Kaylin.
Kaylin nodded.
”Good.”
Morse coughed. ”Geography's never been her strong point.”
”She has Corporal Handred, a man known for his competence in both navigation and memorization.” Tiamaris hadn't looked up, but when he opened his mouth, Kaylin covered her ears.
The b.a.s.t.a.r.d grinned and spoke in High Barrani.
The lines on the map began to s.h.i.+ft. Or at least it looked that way at first. What s.h.i.+fted, however, was the color in which they were drawn; they went from a bright gold to a rust red. Gold lines then ran across the map, spreading from the central point of the Tower toward the outer edges of the fief. In most cases, the gold overlay the red precisely; in a few cases, it didn't.
”These would be the street changes?”
”Yes.” Small white circles materialized in what appeared to be entirely random places. ”These would be the areas in which the bodies currently in our keeping were found, along with the dates. Red might be able to give us an idea of how much time pa.s.sed between death and discovery.”
Kaylin shook her head. ”I don't think it's going to matter.”
”No?”
”What we really need is an idea of how much time pa.s.sed between the placement of the corpses and their discovery; they could have been killed earlier. I mean, the body found in the well didn't die by drowning; the corpse found in the half-burned ruins didn't die by burning or inhaling smoke.” She grimaced. ”You see anything like a pattern in the placement of those bodies?”
He frowned. ”What do you see?”
”There's no real pattern. But the corpses that were found earliest seem to be slightly closer to the interior border.” She frowned again.
”Kaylin?”
”It's nothing. Tiamaris, may I?”
He nodded.
”During the breach of the borders, and while you were reestablis.h.i.+ng border control, how many storms occurred in the fief?”
”Shadowstorm?”
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