Cast In Ruin Part 14

Sanabalis offered Tiamaris and Tara a deep bow. "On the morrow," he told his former student. Tiamaris grimaced, but nodded and turned back toward the interior of the Tower.

Sanabalis rose. "Well?" he asked Kaylin.

"Tara's determined to teach me proper table manners."

He raised a white brow. "While that was not entirely what I meant, I approve. Did the subject of the investigation come up?"

"Yes."

"And?"

She hesitated; the sudden change in the color of Tiamaris's eyes urged her to be cautious. "Why did you call this a subtle Shadow incursion?"

"I am not convinced that it is not."

"I'm not convinced that it is."

"Then you will approach the investigation with an open mind."

"There's something you're not telling me."

"There is always something I am not, as you put it, telling you. Suffice it to say, the investigation is, to my mind, enough of a priority that even Lord Diarmat will accept the necessity, should the matter arise."

"Sanabalis-"

"And before you make pointless accusations," he said, lifting a hand, "let me a.s.sure you that none of the information I am currently refusing to part with has any direct bearing on the investigation itself. I admit that I find it disturbing."

"Good. Disturbing enough to help me leverage a small item or two out of the Imperial mages?"

He raised one brow. "That, I feel, is a matter for the Sergeant to decide."

"The Sergeant will say no-the fiefs aren't in his jurisdiction."

"Possibly. What, exactly, do you hope to leverage-as you put it-out of the Imperial mages?"

"Just a crystal. A small one."

Both his brows rose. "You want a projection crystal."

"Just one."

"Private Neya, Sergeant Ka.s.san would in all likelihood deny the request if you were working on the investigation into the Exchequer himself. Do you have any idea of the expense you would be incurring?"

"No," she replied, entirely truthfully. "But I know they're both rare and useful."

"The reason they are rare in spite of the fact that they're demonstrably useful is the expense and difficulty of their creation. What, exactly, do you hope to demonstrate?"

"Not demonstrate, exactly. I want to take it into the streets and I want to show people what she-what they-looked like when they were alive. I have two things in mind to start. One, we cast it entirely as an important missing person and two, we also attempt to find out if anyone has gone missing within the last three days."

"Why?"

She shrugged. "Even if the corpses are corpses-and I want Red to come and inspect them, or I want them exported to the Halls-that can't be what they originally looked like. Sanabalis, there are seven identical bodies. Even if they were somehow sisters, there would be distinguis.h.i.+ng birthmarks, moles, differences in teeth-something. There isn't." She hesitated again, and Sanabalis's eyes narrowed. "You've done a magical a.n.a.lysis?"

"I? No. I have not entered the Tower where the bodies are kept."

"But you've seen the bodies?"

"I've seen three of them."

"And?"

Sanabalis, however, had run out of patience. He now adopted his teacher voice. "You were in the Tower. You were no doubt allowed to inspect the bodies. You have already, in the course of your duties, displayed an uncanny sensitivity to magic. Did you, or did you not, notice anything of significance that would indicate the bodies themselves were enspelled?"

His eyes had gone from gold to bronze, and his expression was very pinched.

She had no ready answer. His eyes narrowed, but his gaze remained a steady and comforting bronze. This wasn't the usual definition of comfort when dealing with Dragons, but in comparison to the livid near-red of Tiamaris, it would do.

"What, exactly, were you looking for?"

She grimaced. "Sigils. Signatures."

"You did not, of course, find them."

"No."

"What does this tell you?"

"It doesn't tell us that magic isn't involved," she said firmly.

"No?"

"No."

"Private Neya, while it is entirely true that I fail to tell you everything that might satisfy your apparently boundless curiosity, this is not a situation in which turnabout is, to coin a human phrase, fair play. What occurred in the Tower?"

"Tiamaris had already examined the bodies for vestiges of magic."

One pale brow rose. "Of course he had."

"He said he found nothing. But I asked him to cast the spell again, in my presence."

"Good. The results?"

"I...don't understand the results," she admitted. "But he wasn't very happy with them."

"You said he had cast the spell once and received no useful information."

"Yes. But-"

"You will be the death of either yourself or me. My preference at this point is obviously yourself." Sanabalis began to walk, and Kaylin joined him. Severn walked to her left.

"Usually I notice sigils, physical signatures. That wasn't the case here. I almost noticed nothing."

"Almost?"

"There was no difference. When the spell was invoked, I noticed no change. It was when the spell faded that I did. But when I mentioned this to Tiamaris, he cast the spell again-and this time, he looked. But he-he looked at the woman's eyes."

He lifted one hand. "Thank you, Private."

CHAPTER 9.

"You already know what he saw." Kaylin kept accusation out of her voice with effort. She stopped walking, however.

Sanabalis didn't. She had to jog to catch up. "No. I did not know until you spoke."

"You suspected?"

"No, Kaylin."

"Do you think she's supposed to be a dead Dragon?"

"An interesting choice of words."

Glancing at his profile she saw that his inner eye membranes were up. Even with their opacity, his eyes were now a bright orange. "We will go directly to the Palace," he told her. "Corporal?"

Severn nodded.

"Private Neya's visual memory is not always as...crisp...as it could be. Yours, on record, is excellent."

Severn raised a brow, but it was Kaylin who said, "You're going to give us the crystal."

"Not precisely," was the clipped response. "The availability of necessary materials within the Imperial Order is not guar anteed, and the process of requisition requires some entanglement with the Order's very fine bureaucracy."

"But?"

"The necessary materials-without the paperwork-can be found in only one place in the Palace. I leave it to your very fine mind to deduce where."

The Palace, at the moment, was not where Kaylin wanted to be, although her next session with Diarmat wasn't scheduled until tomorrow night. The Dragon to her right, on the other hand, was not someone she wanted to argue with, and since he was much closer, she headed-in silence-to the Palace.

The guards did not seem thrilled at the prospect of the naked-short-blade in Kaylin's hand, and they seemed both underimpressed and derisive when they noted that she wore no sheath for it. It set her teeth on edge, but she failed to comment. Sanabalis, however, had no difficulty excusing its presence, and clearly he outranked them; they let her pa.s.s.

Word of this exception must have traveled, because no one else gave her trouble. Everyone else, on the other hand, did notice the sword.

"We will have to do something about that," Sanabalis said under his breath. "Find a makes.h.i.+ft sheath for now if you will not leave the blade somewhere safe."

"By now, you mean after we've finished speaking with the Arkon?"

"Don't be clever, Kaylin. It's been a very trying week."

"Yes, Sanabalis."

"Let me speak," he cautioned her once they'd pa.s.sed the officious man at the doors and the usual gauntlet of Imperial Guards, and had entered the wide, tall halls of the Palace proper.

"Unless he demands an answer, he's all yours."

"If he demands an answer, I will answer."

She snorted, and wished, briefly, that the noise was also accompanied by smoke and a little fire. For someone with perfect memory-and all Immortals pretty much laid claim to that-his was certainly convenient; he'd clearly forgotten what the Arkon was like.

But at least when he approached the closed Library doors, Sanabalis was considerate enough to press his palms into the door wards; he didn't demand that Kaylin do it herself. The doors rolled open.

Although the Library was the Arkon's in any way that mattered, it was nonetheless staffed by mostly human attendants; set a few yards from the door was a long and impressive desk behind which one such employee sat. He looked up as the doors opened, his somewhat forbidding expression s.h.i.+fting when he saw who'd entered. He rose immediately and bowed.

"Lord Sanabalis," he said as he rose. "I don't believe the Arkon is expecting you."

"No."

This wasn't the hoped-for answer, but the man nodded. Reaching for something beneath the lip of the desk's surface, he said, "I will send word that you've arrived. Is it urgent?"

"It is not-at the moment-an emergency. If it is more convenient," he added as a much younger man appeared from behind a long row of shelving, "I will approach him myself. Has he given orders he is not to be interrupted?"

"They're standing orders," was the slightly grim reply. "The Royal Librarian lost much valuable archival time during the last crisis."

The younger man made his way to the front of the desk and stood in front of the older one, who was clearly-in the absence of the Arkon-in charge. But the older man grimaced. "Never mind, Wills. Lord Sanabalis has a message he wishes to convey in person. Lord Sanabalis, you will find the Arkon in the third hall of artifacts. The Hawks?"

"They are with me. They understand the rules of the Library. I will personally deal with any infractions."

"Thank you, Lord Sanabalis." He cleared his throat before they'd taken two steps, and the Dragon Lord turned back.

"Yes?"

"The Private," he said, indicating Kaylin.

"What about her?"

"She is carrying a sword."

Sanabalis glanced at the blade that Maggaron had given her. "My apologies," he told the Librarian. "We wish the Arkon to examine it, and I believe he will find it of interest, but for the moment, we will leave it at the desk in your care."

Turning to Kaylin, he added, "If that is acceptable to you?"