Part 20 (1/2)
”Yes.”
Tara lifted her head. Her eyes drained of all color that wasn't obsidian, something Kaylin always found unsettling. ”That information is not complete in records.” She spoke as if she were the voice of the mirror-which, all things considered, she probably was.
”Pardon?”
”Shadowstorm is difficult to capture visually,” Tiamaris replied. ”It defies objective comprehension. The large storms you've seen resemble regular storms in some fas.h.i.+on.”
Small fas.h.i.+on, in Kaylin's opinion.
”But not all storms are immediately visible; nor do they all have immediate effect. What I see and what you see will differ. The effects of the storm can be clearly doc.u.mented; the areas are defined in records by the effects.”
”So, in theory, if there were no effects there was no storm?”
”In theory, yes-as far as the fief records are concerned.” His tone made clear what he thought of the theory.
”I don't understand why. You can track every single occurrence of Shadow in the fief, and you can track all areas which have been contaminated. Why not the storms?”
”If it wasn't clear to you yesterday, even the Shadows themselves seem to fear the storms; the storms are not of the Shadows.”
”And our keeping strong borders just gives them another reason to hate us, not that they appear to need them?”
He chuckled. ”Something like that, yes. The storms are confined to the interior, where only the Shadows and those that serve them need fear their effects.”
Tara took a step, knelt, and placed her palm against the surface of the water; this caused Kaylin to flinch, although she didn't look away. Water, unlike the enchanted, silvered gla.s.s of most mirrors in the modern world, was more mutable. ”You think that these bodies might have appeared because of the storms?”
”I...think it's a possibility,” Kaylin replied cautiously.
”Why?”
”Because a storm, Tara, is how I first met you. There's no other way I could have done it.”
Tara nodded slowly. ”Do you think she was always a corpse?”
”That's what we're hoping to find out. We have an image crystal here; it shows the woman as we think she looked while she was alive. We're going to hit the streets in the areas where the bodies were found to see if we can bribe anyone into telling us if they saw her.”
”Do you think you will find that information?”
”I don't know. If you can mark the points where the storms occurred-”
”I cannot mark all of them,” was the quiet reply. ”Some of my defenses-demonstrably-were compromised in the absence of a Lord. I could not see clearly all that was occurring within the boundaries of the fief at that time.” She hesitated and then said, ”Lord Illien might know.”
Kaylin was silent for a full thirty seconds. ”...Severn and I are going to head out to see if we can find any leads. If you can mark areas where the storms were known ent.i.ties, we'll see how much overlap there was. A lot depends on whether or not we can find a single eyewitness anywhere.”
Kaylin and Severn weren't wearing the Hawk. This didn't stop doors from being closed-usually on their feet-or, better, failing to be opened at all. The gem, activated, with its stunning but admittedly unusual representation of a well-dressed stranger, had seemed like such a good idea at the time. The Arkon's reaction should have been a big clue.
But in the streets of the fiefs, magic of any kind was more terrifying than weapons. It was probably on par with Ferals, at least in the sunlight hours.
In two hours, they managed to talk to three people in total, the last two because Severn deactivated the gem and described the ”missing person” with words.
”We clearly need more obvious magic in these streets,” Kaylin muttered as they began to walk toward the well at the end of the road.
”They're probably confusing it with Shadow; they've seen enough of that to last a few lifetimes.”
”They've probably seen a Dragon, as well-which most of the rest of the city hasn't.”
”Ferals.”
”Okay, fine, this is going to be harder than it looked.” She glanced at the sun's height.
The well was never completely abandoned at this time of day. The streets around the well were about as crowded as fief streets ever got, and children were playing in the streets. Well, technically, four of them were playing and two of them were having a tug-of-war over a stick while practicing street language that would only grow more useful with time.
”This is the well,” Severn said quietly.
Kaylin nodded. ”I'm surprised there are any people here at all, given the scare about the water.”
”The corpse didn't decay-at all. I'm sure it's not worse than drinking any other well water in the fief.”
Kaylin wasn't, but was willing to take his word for it. Wells in the fiefs could be claimed by the fieflord or his thugs, and often were. People bartered for water because it was better than broken bones, lost teeth, or severe bruises. Since she wasn't in the best of moods to begin with, she'd been sort of looking forward to knocking a few teeth out of someone's mouth, but there were no ”guards” near the well. There weren't, from a brief scan of the streets, any lookouts of any sort, either.
”Tiamaris has really done a good job with this place,” she murmured, taking a seat in the shadows cast by the well itself and placing her back against the stone there. She stretched out both legs and took a deep breath. ”Gem?”
Severn tried to hand her the crystal.
”Not falling for that.”
He chuckled and activated it. The woman appeared above his palms, as if he were carrying her. This had the advantage of clearing the streets of anyone who wasn't terribly nearsighted. Or old enough to know better.
”Let's see how it goes,” Severn told her. ”An hour?”
She glanced at the sun. ”Two, tops.”
It took less than an hour for someone to approach them. The someone was young, which wasn't surprising, and he was sprinting ahead of an older woman who wouldn't make it half a street from Ferals if she were stupid enough to be caught out at night. Young or no, the child hesitated slightly as she approached, but sped up again when she realized that she was about to be s.n.a.t.c.hed off the ground by an increasingly angry caretaker.
Kaylin raised a brow. ”You're going to be in deep trouble,” she told the girl.
This seemed to mean ”Please, jump on my thigh in an attempt to reach Severn” as far as the child was concerned. The girl tried to grab the image. Her hands pa.s.sed through nothing, and she almost fell over.
Kaylin caught the back of her oversize, thinning s.h.i.+rt. There weren't a lot of polite children in the fiefs, but the girl mumbled a thank-you. This didn't stop her from trying to grab the skirts of the image again.
The old woman who'd been keeping an eye on her stopped at a much safer distance-four yards, give or take-and bowed nervously. ”She means no harm,” she said, rising. ”Give her back to me. I'll make sure she never bothers you again.”
”She's not bothering us,” Kaylin replied. She didn't bother to speak softly; no point, and in the fiefs at the moment, it would just seem suspicious. The girl had fallen through the image the crystal projected another three times, and only Severn's arm had stopped the last one from ending in a face-plant at the base of the well.
The old woman finally called the child by name. In this case it was Susa, and it was said in the low growl that only elderly voices can achieve. It was ignored, on the other hand, in the way that only the youthful could manage.
”What,” the woman said, because a quarter hour of this had made it less strange or less terrifying, ”is that?”
”We're members of the Imperial Hawks,” Kaylin replied, which wasn't really an answer. ”This is one of the tools we use-across the bridge-to find missing people.”
”You think someone was stupid enough to run to the fiefs?” The last word had squeaked up a register, and was followed by a snort. On the surface, it was the only reasonable fief response to Kaylin's reply.