Part 21 (1/2)

”h.e.l.ls, no. She fell into the well, though. She stopped just here,” he added, pulling himself slightly out of the crowd to approach the well itself. ”She looked down. Grandpa tried to stop her, but we were too far away.”

”She fell in?”

The boy nodded. ”Fell in. Grandpa was worried-it's our well,” he added, as if to make clear his grandfather wasn't an idiot humanitarian. ”But-she was talking. When she was leaning over the water, she was talking.”

”What did she say?”

”We didn't understand it. Some foreign words.”

”Did you see where she came from?”

He hesitated again. Then he slid the coins into his pocket and pushed them as far down as they would go. He lifted a hand and pointed. ”She came from there.”

Kaylin rose for the first time; Severn, however, remained seated. The boy was pointing at a building that looked, from this distance, to be one of the older buildings in the fief. It was stone, although the stone had cracked, and some of its corners had crumbled. There was a roof, although it looked much more recent than the walls. Windows-and it had windows-wore shutters that were warped and faded.

”Can I go now?” the boy asked.

Kaylin nodded. ”Thank you. You've helped your Lord and Lady. Severn?”

There weren't a lot of buildings in the fiefs that were unoccupied. In Tiamaris, this was probably more true at the moment than in any other fief. If Kaylin had entertained the vague and hopeful notion that this building would be an exception, it was dashed pretty quickly. Like many of the oldest of buildings, it was set farther back from the street, although in this case, street was a charitable word for a mixture of stone and dirt with a lot of weeds thrown in.

There had once been fencing, and the perimeter of the property had been defined by a wall or a demiwall. What remained was crumbled stone that stood at various heights, and rusty spots where fence posts had once resided. Beyond what had probably been the property line, the weeds were higher. There was a door, but it wasn't much of a door, given that only two of three hinges seemed to actually be working; it had had a lock, but that had been removed or destroyed some time ago, as well. It creaked.

”She was alive,” Kaylin said as she pushed the door inward.

Severn nodded. He spoke a single word, and the crystal's image immediately winked out. He slid the crystal into the pouch at his hip.

”Do you think it was an illusion of some kind?”

”I don't see why anyone would bother.”

Neither did Kaylin. On the other hand, Kaylin didn't understand how there could be seven of her, either. Transformational magic did, in theory, exist, but in practice, she couldn't immediately recall a case in which it had been relevant. Magic that transformed living creatures, on the other hand, was a magic best ascribed to G.o.ds. She was fairly certain that any less-than-divine mages who tried it would end up with corpses, regardless of their starting material.

There were, as expected, families in the building. Walls of very dubious construction had been put in place some time ago; they weren't original to the building. Kaylin sighed. ”Shall we do this the old-fas.h.i.+oned way?”

Severn nodded.

No one who lived in the building-which is to say, no one who was actually brave enough to answer their door-had seen the woman in question. Kaylin was reasonably certain they were telling the truth, and any investigation of a more magical nature would have to wait for either Sanabalis or Tiamaris; she could sense no magic anywhere in the building. This wasn't unusual for the fiefs.

There was a bas.e.m.e.nt as well as two stories. The bas.e.m.e.nt was the last place they looked because even in the fiefs, people didn't like to live in the dark. But there were people, or at least evidence of people, living in the dark here. They weren't home or weren't answering their door. The door was actually locked, and the lock was half-decent.

Kaylin was torn. It wasn't a hard lock to pick, but she didn't have many tools for that kind of work at the moment. On the other hand, she wasn't the Law, here-a little bit of break and enter, if it wasn't accompanied by theft or violence, wouldn't cause paperwork or complaints.

Severn didn't think it was worthwhile. ”Now that we know where it is, we can ask Tara to examine it at her leisure-and at a distance. I don't think we'll find anything.”

Neither did Kaylin, which is why she didn't insist.

They made it back to the Tower ahead of the Dragons and the Avatar. Given the nature of the Tower, the doors weren't locked. If they didn't roll open on their own as she approached them, they did open with a little help.

Kaylin and Severn made their way to the morgue, where Red was still working.

One look at his expression made clear that he wasn't finished. That, and he wasn't entirely happy with the work in progress, not that happiness per se was ever something you expected to find while cutting into corpses.

”What's wrong?” Kaylin asked.

”I'm going to need another set of scalpels,” he replied curtly. ”Are you two done for the day?”

”I am,” Kaylin said. ”I've got another appointment I can't afford to miss. Red, what is wrong? Do you know what killed her? Or them?”

”No. I'm not sure anything I do will give us that information, either.”

”Why?”

Red hesitated. ”I've done enough autopsy work on humans and Tha'alani to understand them; I can work my way around Aerians and Leontines. I've never touched a Barrani, but she's not that-not externally. She looks more or less human to my eye.”

”But?”

”She's not.”

CHAPTER 12.

Kaylin and Severn exchanged a glance. ”What is she, then?”

”I'm not entirely certain. You said she pa.s.sed a magical scan?”

Kaylin nodded.

Red heaved a louder than usual sigh, and stretched both arms. ”I want record access,” he finally said.

”I'm not sure Marcus'll be happy about that. Ask Sanabalis when and if he gets back here.”

”If?”

”He doesn't really like to spend much time in the Tower. I don't know why. I can't wait, though,” she added.

”You've got a date?”

”Yes. With a really arrogant Dragon Lord. I'll trade,” she added.

”No, thank you. You'll just destroy the corpses.”

Kaylin had spent enough time in the streets that she'd have to move quickly to make it to the Palace on time for her second encounter with Lord Diarmat. She tried to leave Severn in the Tower, but that was a lost cause.

”I'm not going to pick a fight or lose my temper on the way to the Palace,” she grumbled as they walked quickly toward the bridge.

”No. But you probably won't eat before you hit the Palace, either.”